I was hanging out (and by hanging out, I mean working...we joked that our "dates" have gotten really boring now that we're older) with one of my cousins yesterday, and I told her that I would be doing some raking in the afternoon. She had no idea what I was talking about.
Like me, my cousin has lived on a farm for nearly all of her life. However, our families do some things a bit differently. I'm extremely proud of her and her family for the large-scale operation they have built up. Ours seems kind of like a hobby farm compared to their acreage. But it still neat when I mention something to her that she doesn't know about and I'm still very proud of the work our farm does.
Our family does a lot of hay for our cattle. This year we will be baling up feed, oats and alfalfa.
I was specifically raking oats yesterday so I'll explain it a bit.
Obviously this is the view from in front of the tractor. These are what we call windrows. It is how the swather neatly lays down the oats in a row after they are cut. Unlike a combine, it doesn't thresh anything, it simply cuts and lays it down.
(FUNNY SIDE NOTE: I just typed the word "swather" and my computer doesn't recognize it as a word. I guess next time I should buy a farm computer ;-)
I know this isn't the best photo, but this is what the rake that I'm pulling behind the tractor looks like from the side. It is really wide and what it does is rakes two rows of oats into one bigger row. It also turns over the oats so that they will dry out better for baling. Baling wet oats can result in moldy bales and can also result in a fire. If they are packed together while too wet, it creates heat and can actually catch on fire.
This is the view behind the tractor. Those spinning wheels work a bit like a conveyor belt and transport the row of oats to the center where it is joined with the other row. Because it is in a bigger row, and there are now less rows, it means the tractor and baler don't have to travel near as far to create one bale. There is more of the crop in a smaller area so it is much more efficient.
Hopefully we will get the oats baled soon as we are hitting a very busy time of year. We will have a very small wheat harvest, but at the same time we are harvesting wheat, we will also be cutting and baling alfalfa.
My main job will probably be to keep the pig-weeds under control with the mower around the farm. Some were just mowed about four days ago and are nearing mid-shin height again. And places that haven't been mowed for a week have some weeds that are nearing mid-thigh to hip height. Gonna be a busy, but very blessed, week for our farm!
No comments:
Post a Comment