Rack drying hay in the field

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread

Friends,

Rack drying hay in the field the old fashioned way is described in a new Workshop section of ScytheSupply.com

http://www.scythesupply.com/workshop6-1.html

also American made wooden rakes and hay forks are now available http://www.scythesupply.com/rakes.html

thanks and good mowing,

-- elliot fishbein (ellifish@nemaine.com), September 28, 2001

Answers

In his book Fertility Farming, Newman Turner has a chapter on drying hay or grains in the field using tripod structures. He notes: "We discovered very soon that there is an art in tripodding, which makes expert instruction essential to success; for, like many others, we spoiled some of the crop by working, in the beginning, without guidance. But once we knew how, the process was simple, and the best method of saving quality crops that I have yet experiences."

However, this was published in 1951 long before square balers came into common use. Field drying is labor intensive, so is square baling. That is why many (most?) larger users have gone to large round bales. In this area hired help is largely not available to transporting square baled hay from field to barn. As soon as you runout of family, square baling becomes not very efficient.

In Croatia I saw cases of stack drying around a center pole (might have had a hollow core), putting hay up loose, square baling and round baling.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), September 29, 2001.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ