I work at a waste water plant and I do all the spreading of sludge. I also farm so I am really conscientious of what kind of a job I do. Loading the spreader is the part I can't help but do a bad job. To start with the sludge is 85% water so it draws into the soil. The field can be fit but after a few loads the loading goes bad. We tried to get a tracked skid loader and the council shot that down. Now with covid I think alot of things are going to be gone. Has anyone ever put chains on a loader like ours and how did it work? I always warn the farmers that this will happen but still don't like it.
Keep moving the loading area. As you said after a few loads... Can you consider mats for a loading area ?
85% of the compaction occurs in the first pass so I try to keep the load area as small as possible. I have never seen mats. Of course mobility is important. I like to do it when the morning starts at sub zero and a high under 10 degrees. That brings other problems though. I don't think anyone would want that in May;-)
I run chains on a 5083E john deere (approx 10,000lbs) and they do a great job on the ice. I already have r-1 tires for the non frozen times, but the chains are beneficial in the mud to. YMMV.
Back in the 70s and 80s my grandpa used to get the sludge from the local plant. They would stockpile it on the edge of a field during the summer, let it sit and drain for awhile, and then he would spread it in the fall after we chopped the corn off. By then, the sludge was fairly dry and didn't make a sloppy mess like that. Today, we stockpile manure on distant fields with a dump truck. When we've got enough to cover the field, we take the loader and spreader there to spread it all at once. Sometimes the staging area holds up well, other times it gets pretty tore up. We just accept it's part of running a loader operation in a field. The damage that occurs to one small area is deemed acceptable for the overall good you did to the rest of the field. We also have a deep ripper and can plow an area we think has a compaction issue later on if deemed necessary.