A mobile apparatus is used to process animal waste in a farm building and
to spread the processed animal waste back on the floor of the farm
building as the apparatus moves through the farm building. The apparatus
includes a processing mechanism that heats the animal waste to a
predetermined temperature to eliminate insects, bacteria, and ammonia
from the animal waste. The apparatus also includes a spreader mechanism
for distributing the processed animal waste onto the farm building floor.
The apparatus may optionally include a pickup mechanism that picks up the
animal waste off of the farm building floor and directs the animal waste
to the processing mechanism. The most preferred implementation of the
apparatus is a single-pass machine that takes in animal waste in the
front using a pickup mechanism, processes the animal waste to sanitize
the animal waste, and spreads the sanitized animal waste in the rear,
allowing the operator to move the machine through the farm building and
thereby sanitize all of the animal waste in a single pass.