* Vaughan Jones, F. W. Owen, and all; what do
* we, or does anyone on the Graze-L list,
* collectively know and / or remember about
* buck rakes, outdoor hay curing and storage,
* haystacks, hay trellis (Norwegian, Swedish)?
* Did commercial companies get into providing
* equipment for servicing this harvest
* technique? What where some of the more and
* less obvious considerations?
Hi,
I thought of a couple more.
There used to be something called a hay perch. This was a
light stick, like a 5 foot tomato stake with a light cross
piece tacked on about half way up. This would be driven
into the ground. Hay could be bundled and tied with a
couple pieces of lng grass, and then leaned on the "perch"
to dry.
Three of these could be leaned together at the top to make a
cock with a open center.
Also hay was sometimes bundled and tied with grass, and then
three bundles leaned together with one more laid across the
top. The one on top would be the roof. This is just about
like shocking oats or wheat that was cut with a binder but
the hay is picked up by hand from the swath.
This last was still done here up to 30 or 40 years ago with
soybean hay which is very hard to cure.
These methods take way too much labor to be seriously
considered.
By the way, rain does far more serious damage to cocked or
shocked hay that is almost dry than it does to half dry
hay.
Finally, small square bales can be leaned together at the
top to reduce the area of the bale touching the ground.
This is done so that one bale covers the end of the other
bale so less is exposed to rain. Sometimes three are
leaned together.
This last is done right up to present with wet bales. It
seems to me that about every farmer that ever made hay with
small squares bales would have done this. It's common
practice here with heavy bales.
--
Kindest regards,
=======================
F. W. Owen
Owenlea Holsteins
9430 Spencer Road
Homerville, Ohio 44235
e-mail fwo@bright.net
home page http://www.bright.net/~fwo
voice & fax 330.625.2369
=======================
