We present a cluster mean-field study for ground-state phase diagram and many-body dynamics of spin-1 bosons confined in a two-chain Bose-Hubbard ladder(BHL).For unbiased BHL,we find superfluid(SF)phase and integer filling Mott insulator(IntMI)phase.For biased BHL,in addition to the SF and IntMI phases,there appears half-integer filling Mott insulator(HIntMI)phase.The phase transition between the SF and IntMI phases can be first order at a part of phase boundaries,while the phase transition between the SF and HIntMI phases is always second order.By tuning the bias energy,we report on the change of the nature of SF-MI phase transitions.Furthermore,we study the effect of the spin-dependent interaction on the many-body population dynamics.The spin-dependent interaction can lead to rich dynamical behaviors,but does not influence the particle transfer efficiency.Our results indicate a way to tune the nature of the SF-MI phase transition and open a new avenue to study the many-body dynamics of spinor bosons in optical lattices.