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Haymaking habits die slow
With all of the advances that
have come to agriculture over the
past quarter century, one job has
changed very little on most farms.,
That’s the business of haymaking.
Granted, fewer farmers make
hay, preferring instead green chop
or some other form of “silage”.
But those farmers who produce
real hay still follow an age-old
ritual. Tractors, pull-type hay
balers and bale evelators have
modernized the process quite a bit
compared to the way it was 40 or 50
4feyears ago. But the techniques
t followed by the typical fanner are
virtually the same.' .
Of course, good weather is
critical to good haymaking, so a
fanner watches the forecast and
waits for a dry spell of a few days
duration. This year has been a
, nightmare, with showers almost
every other itey more than a
month.
The standard routine is to cut
fairly early in the day, and
depending on temperature,
: humidity, sunshine and the type of
hay, rake it into windrows late that
* day or after the dew dries the next
i day .-Then, if aill goes well, baling
* 'i . ♦ .» i
Farm
Talk
Jerry Webb
can start the next day.
Most farmers with at least a
modest amount of hay to bale, own
their own balers. These marvelous
machines have been around for
almost a hundred years, but only in
the last 40 have they become
mobile. These days, a baler
powered by a medium-sized
tractor moves down the windrows
picking up the loose hay
mechanically, pressing it into a
bale and tying it with wire or
twine. The bale is forced out the
back end of the machine, ready for
the barn.
Depending on the kind of baler
and how modern it is, the bales are
. either dropped on the ground,
carried up a chute to be loaded by
manpower onto a following wagon
or tossed mechanically into a
wagon with high sides. The latter
technique to fairly new and not
totally accepted by farmers as the
best way to handle hay. Many still
prefer to stack it by hand directly
from the baler or from the ground.
Both are back-breaking jobs
calling for skill, strength and
stamina.
It’s surprising to me that as
3JVUTBUO '
difficult as this part of haymaking
is, it's still done the way it was
when 1 was a boy. 1 did get in on
some loose haymaking stacked
with pitchforks on a horse-drawn
wagon. And once I loaded loose hay
that was piled on the wagon by an
unwieldy machine pulled behme
the wagon. But most ot my
haymaking involved bales
pulled from the back of the baler
and stacked very carefully on a
bumping, bouncing wagon.
Once loaded, an empty wagon
was substituted and the full one
was picked up by the unloading
crew usually husky teenagers
willing to heft 80-pound bales off of
a wagon into a barn loft without
any mechanical advantages.
The first bale elevators, as crude
as they were, brought joy to the
hearts of many teenaged boys.
After that it was only a matter of
dumping the bales from the wagon
onto the elevators. Of course,
someone still had to stack them in
the barn a hot, dusty job but
the heavy lifting was eliminated.
That innovation came along
about 30 years ago and was the last
big breakthrough until fairly
recently when bale throwers made
their debut. More recently other
machines that make huge bales
that can only be handled by
machines have been developed.
Also, there’s a machine that makes
small haystacks that can be left in
the field. And while these devices
are being used by some farmers,
common practice is about the way
it was 25 or 30 years ago.
I drove by the haymaking site of
a fanner friend recently a
farmer with the best in field crop
planting and harvesting equip
ment. And although he has $lOO,OOO
or more invested in farm
machinery, he still makes hay the
way I did when I was a kid. He may
be riding in an air-conditioned
tractor as he pulls the newest in
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w
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balers over the fields, but that’s
where space-age technology stops.
From the back of the baler to the
barn loft requires as much muscle
strain and sweat as it did when that
same tarmer was starting his
tractor with a crank and storing
his milk in 10 gallon cans.
One Pennsylvania farmer
handles his hay on pallets the
same way bulky items are handled
in industry. Bales are stacked
from the baler onto these pallets
and from there it’s all machine
Grange
elk control efforts
HARRISBURG - The Penn
sylvania State Grange will honor
officials of the Pennsylvania Game
Commission, Bureau of Forestry,
and several state legislators in
volved in instituting an elk herd
management program, with a tour
and luncheon for invited guests in
Elk County, next Wednesday.
The Game Commission recently
approved an updated management
plan following deliberations of an
elk management committee
formed last fall with appointees
from the Grange, Game Com
mission, Bureau of Forestry, and
sportsmen.
Farmers in Elk County had
complained to the State Grange
about considerable crop damage
caused by the increasing elk herd
in their county. Since the elk are
unique and a local tourist at
traction, farmers are reluctant to
shoot the animals even though they
are permitted to destroy elk if crop
damage occurs. The State Grange
met with the Game Commission
last fall; and together an elk
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• Stores up to 22,000 bu
U S Patents 3,479,748 and 3,501,845
Foreign Patents Pending
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 31,1982—05
work, with a forklift device
becoming a necessary piece of
farm equipment.
Maybe that’s the way to go in the
future, but that’s a whole new
concept that must be accepted by
farmers. It means new equipment,
new storage buildings, a big in
vestment something hay far
mers aren’t looking for these days.
So don’t be surprised if the hard
work stays in haymaking for many
years to come. And it does provide
some summer employment for a
lot of otherwise idle teen-age boys.
salutes
management committee
formed.
The July 28 tour will include a
look at management methods
initiated under the newly adopted
plan, such as on experimental high
tensile electric fencing installed on
a local farm; sites where ad
ditional wildlife openings are being
developed on public lands; and an
existing grazing area where the
vegetation is being improved. This
work is being undertaken fay the
Game Commission using Game
Fund revenues.
At the luncheon in St. Marys, the
Grange will honor the following
persons for their respective roles
in bringing about a solution to the
elk problem: Jacob Sitlinger, chief
of Division of Land Management,
Game Commission; Robert
Martin, district forester. Bureau of
Forestry; Pa. Senator Patrick
Stapleton (D-Indiana); P.
Representative William Wachob
(D-EUc); and Pa. Representative
William Foster (R-Wayne),
• chairman of the House Game and
Fisheries Committee.
was