Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Baling hay, and shoveling grain?

Baled hay and will be doing more of the same this summer if it ever dries out. Shoveled grain also, but worse than either of those two jobs is pitching [bleep]! Loaded 2 manure spreaders full this weekend by pitchfork. Cheated a little bit by having barn cleaner actually load the spreader. But still had to pitch stalls and penpack into the cleaner...Gives a nice upper body workout!

I have kept my feelings on baling hay a closely-guarded secret for these many years. It is finally time to come out and admit that I hated it with a passion. As for shoveling of various agricultural items, that was something that I never minded so much - I guess that I measured it against baling. One shoveling that I haven't seen mentioned is shoveling silage down from the silo; included there would be using a pick-axe to loosen it in the winter.

And plugging the silo chute!

been there done that wore out the shirt ,glad I don't have to do it again.

You forgot picking rock and unloading 80lb bags of fertilizer by the tractor-trailer load.

Grew up on a dairy farm, so yes. Many nights waiting for the dew to fall and then being roused from sleep by dad to bale till mid-morning till the dew had evaporated. Then sleep, grease the baler, adjust the knotters as needed and repeat. Shoveled oats, barley and wheat---the oats in two old cement silos which my grandfather and his brother had poured as young men, one ring at a time with buckets hauling the cement up ladders after they'd milked the cows in the morning. I remember when Carter sold wheat to Russia in about '73 and the price went up to $5 or $6 bucks a bushel. Dad had 5000 bushels in storage, sold it at just the right time and made enough to buy six Thunderbird wheel lines the next year. What a blessing that was to teenage boys who moved pipe for 2-3 hours every morning and night! Wonderful memories of growing up on a farm. My siblings and I were the 5th generation on the farm. Grew-up in a brick farmhouse built in 1910.

Did a lot of it when a kid working after school and summers.
As for handling bales, riding the stooker was another job I did a lot of.

We had a Martin steel silo and blew haylage up into the top with an electric-powered blower. Had to unplug that chute more than a few times!

This. I can close my eyes and still smell sileage.

Too much of both, plus more silage. We filled both upright silo and pit. In my younger years both were fed with a silage fork,both loading and unloading the trailer.

in the 70's one old man still used old fashened hay stacks .stick pole in ground and stack around it ,he had to teach me how to proparly stack it so rain ran off of it .he used team of horses ,to cut and rake hay up

Dad didn’t pay us schitt.

He finally bought a round bailer once me and little brother left home for College.
He couldn’t find any more slave labor.

It is amazing how certain topics, such as this, bring back so many memories for so many of us.

There were also all of the miles spent walking beans.

I haven't baled hay but I have hauled a many bale to the barn and carried bales of hay to feed the cattle and walk out of my rubber boots when the mud sucked them off. I put a many scoop of maize (milo) in the grist mill and then bag it to feed the cattle in the pasture. Forked silage in the pickup bed and layer it with groung maize and cotton seed meal. Then fork all of that in the feed trough and hand mix for the cattle. Lot of fun, don't think I could do that now.

I still love the smell of a dairy farm. When I drive by one, I slow down and feel nostalgic. Still like the smell of manure!

I still cannot appreciate the smell of new-mown hay as it reminds me of baling.

Grew up on a mink ranch. Lots of weird jobs there. I've skinned 1000s of them.

I like to wear my mink hat out in the winter, triggering the "animal lovers".

Agreed. He did other jobs for people and we didn't see any of that money either. I don't miss those days. It wasn't about the work, it was about seeing someone else pocket the earnings. He'd give you the shirt off his kids backs.

To me it is like perfume! One of my favorite smells!

When I was a teenager ( WAY BACK ) in the summers I used to work for farmers baling hay. When done at one farm, go to the next. As kids, if we wanted to buy something, that is how we earned the money The other farm work involved forking sileage out of a silo, this was before farmers started getting automatic silo unloaders. Other jobs were Picking stones in the fields, building fence, pitching manure, etc. etc. In Wisconsin, many of the 50 to 80 milking cow farms have disappeared along with much of the manual labor. More mega farms with mostly automated operations. I really can't remember the last time I saw anybody baling hay. Also, with changing times, I seriously doubt you would find any of todays teenagers to do any physical farm work. It would likely be considered cruel and inhumane treatment.