Grasses are tall and the weather’s been right for haying. Farmers have been working dawn to dusk to, well, make hay while the sun shines. This time of year you can see all manner of equipment in fields as the hay is cut, furrowed into rows, baled, and then hauled away. The unit above is one of those you can see this time of year at work and driving on the road. It doesn’t look like more familiar farm equipment. And I couldn’t quite figure it out by just looking at it so I stopped the other day to see how it’s put to work.
This unit comes onto the field after the hay’s been baled. The triangular unit at the front right scoops up each bale and feeds it behind the cab. I think there might be a short conveyor. One by one the bales land on the large platform behind the cab.
Once the platform is full the whole unit is raised until it’s vertical.
The bales are then pressed into a stack and pushed back to join a growing cargo of hay bales. Pretty cool, no? The whole operation is interesting to watch and now, of course, I’m curious to see how a load is removed at the other end. Perhaps another day.
I like watching construction cranes and – apart from the sneezing – this would be just as much fun to watch.
I grew up in the countryside, so I was quite used to seeing this kind of work going on at farms nearby. Terrific shots, Kay!
Hey, there, you with the stars in your eyes. Oh, wait, that’s something else!
Times have sure changed so far as farm equipment goes. When just a teen, I worked on a farm in California one summer and rode the back end of a hay baler. That was godawful…hot, dirty, itchy work. Ugh!
ah yes, i could watch that too…. 🙂
Reminds me of childhood visits to a favorite farm family.