Hay Report

It’s haying time at Poplar Heights Farm and though you all might want to see what’s going on.

This was taken about 1890 and shows the threshing crew with Papa on the left and Daisy standing next to him. The teams of horses would pull the mowers that cut the wheat and then the bundles of wheat would be fed through the thresher to separate the grain from the stalks.

This weekend at nearby Adrian at the Antique Tractor Show they had teams of horses working a small wheat field just like this was done.

At the same time wheat is ready to harvest, it’s time to make the first cutting of hay.  Things are always busy.
 

First come the mowers and cut the grass. It has to lay on the ground and dry. Then the rakes come (above - Brian) and gather the grass in winrows (right – Helen ).

Then the tractor switches to the baler.  This is about 50 years old and makes the square bales that are tied with binder twine. The grass is fed into the baler and it compresses it and ties it together and then shoots it out the back.

Each bale weighs 50 to 75 pounds.  They have to be picked up and loaded on a wagon.  They filled two wagons, one tractor pulled and one pulled by truck.  All together, they baled 150 square bales.  Cost to buy $5.00 each.

Then it has to be unloaded and stored in the pole barns for feeding the horses this winter.

We also “baled on shares” using a neighbor.  He provided the big expensive equipment to mow large areas, rake and bale in the large round bales.  He gets ½ of the yield for his work and we get ½ for letting the grass grow!.

We did this on the larger parts of the Heights and also around the pond at the new addition which we are calling “Will’s Place”.  These bales sell for $75.00 each and we baled 83 so we get to keep 41. All total, they baled just over 62 tons of hay.