We finally got all the square bales into the barn loft. We have quite a few more round bales to cut, rake, bale, and move to the barn lot, but all that is tractor work. Tractor work is still a hot job, but it takes a lot less muscle to operate a tractor than to carry hay bales.
I really enjoy working on the farm a lot, but I am glad I am not counting on it for my primary source of income. You don't realize how much mark-up there is on beef until you start working with cattle ranchers. They get around $1.00-$1.50 a pound live weight for the beef. All said and done around $1100 for the average beef cow. By the time this amount of beef reaches the store shelves it average $3.50 a pound. Of course you have to figure in that a few hundred pounds are waste products and there is cost involved in the butchering, but all in all the wholesalers and retailers make more off the beef than the original farmer.
I would have to sell 50 head of beef to make my salary not counting the cost of grain, hay, and equipment maintenance. Mom's little farm sells way less than that. Probably the reason she has yet to see a profit from it in 10 years.
Well that's enough ranting about the poor farmers who struggle to make the bills each year, yet are so necessary for our nations survival.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Farm Life for a City Boy
I have spent the last two evenings bucking hay. I will be doing it for the rest of this week and into the weekend.
For those other City Folks out there reading my blog, bucking hay is picking up 50lb hay bales from the hay field, stacking them on a flatbed trailer in a manner that they will not fall off when you hit holes in the field, and taking them to the barn.
Once you are at the barn you have to unload them from the trailer and put them in the barn loft. A barn loft is like an attic in a house, except there is not usually anything but a ladder to get into the barn loft and it has two doors, one on each end of the barn about 10 feet off the ground.
How do you get the hay bales ten feet in the air to the door you ask? By bucking them of course. Bucking is what a horse does to rider that he does not want on his back. You take a bale of hay, balance it on one knee kick it up over your head and throw it with all your might using your legs as a boost in power and throw that sucker over your head and into the barn.
Well, I am convinced that hay bales gain weight from riding around on the flat bed trailer, because those first five bales you pick up out of the field in the evening and start the load seem fairly light when you put them on the trailer. Of course as you know they are on the bottom, so they are the last ones off the trailer at the barn, and let me tell you when they come off the trailer they must be heavier, because you are lucky to pick them up much less get them over your head and into the barn.
I have been told by "Mom" that this year they decided to take it easy on the hay, they usually haul it all in on the Saturday in 3-4 trailer loads in one day. Boy am I glad we are taking it easy. One trailer load of 110 bales of hay is plenty to move in one day.
I think her asking us to help this year is a hint that she reeeeaaallly wants a round baler for Christmas. The round bales are all handled by the tractor, no lifting throw, hauling, etc. They are easier during feeding as well. You feed one round bale a day versus 15 square bales a day. You have to load the square bales on the truck, you just pick the round ones up with the tractor and take them to the field.
She may get her nice shiny new round baler yet. Especially if we keep helping with the hay.
Well, its off soon to go buck another 100+ bales of hay. Only a couple hundred to go.
For those other City Folks out there reading my blog, bucking hay is picking up 50lb hay bales from the hay field, stacking them on a flatbed trailer in a manner that they will not fall off when you hit holes in the field, and taking them to the barn.
Once you are at the barn you have to unload them from the trailer and put them in the barn loft. A barn loft is like an attic in a house, except there is not usually anything but a ladder to get into the barn loft and it has two doors, one on each end of the barn about 10 feet off the ground.
How do you get the hay bales ten feet in the air to the door you ask? By bucking them of course. Bucking is what a horse does to rider that he does not want on his back. You take a bale of hay, balance it on one knee kick it up over your head and throw it with all your might using your legs as a boost in power and throw that sucker over your head and into the barn.
Well, I am convinced that hay bales gain weight from riding around on the flat bed trailer, because those first five bales you pick up out of the field in the evening and start the load seem fairly light when you put them on the trailer. Of course as you know they are on the bottom, so they are the last ones off the trailer at the barn, and let me tell you when they come off the trailer they must be heavier, because you are lucky to pick them up much less get them over your head and into the barn.
I have been told by "Mom" that this year they decided to take it easy on the hay, they usually haul it all in on the Saturday in 3-4 trailer loads in one day. Boy am I glad we are taking it easy. One trailer load of 110 bales of hay is plenty to move in one day.
I think her asking us to help this year is a hint that she reeeeaaallly wants a round baler for Christmas. The round bales are all handled by the tractor, no lifting throw, hauling, etc. They are easier during feeding as well. You feed one round bale a day versus 15 square bales a day. You have to load the square bales on the truck, you just pick the round ones up with the tractor and take them to the field.
She may get her nice shiny new round baler yet. Especially if we keep helping with the hay.
Well, its off soon to go buck another 100+ bales of hay. Only a couple hundred to go.
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