Schmidlin Angus Farms

Cowpies to Treetops

Cattle

Farmers Have the Best Toys

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A couple of years ago, we had a visitor to the farm and was showing him around, we made it as far as the barn across the river, and was explaining the harvest process when making hay. The middle section of the barn was filled with freshly made hay bales and we were getting ready to store all hay equipment since we were finished for the season. The visitor to the farm was in awe of the amount of equipment needed to produce a few thousand hay bales.

A John Deere tractor pulling a hay cutting disc mower in a field.The size of the mower astounded him and he walked around and around as he questioned every inch just trying to understand how all the parts worked together.

A piece of equipment used to fluff cut grass in a hay field to ensure even drying.

He wanted to see how the egg beater type fluffer (tedder) worked when it was unfolded, and helped contract and expand the sections marveling at the ‘click’ when the equipment snapped into each mode.

An old piece of farm equipment with rolling spokes that roll hay into windrows in the field. He remarked that those spokes that rotate on the rake made the equipment look like some kind of torture device.

A piece of John Deere farm equipment pulled behind a trailer that compresses dry grass into hay bales in the field. He said the baler looked like it dragged along so far behind the tractor it didn’t seem like it could take rows of hay and compress them enough to make them into bales.

Henry elevator in upright positon set to elevator hay bales from field to truck.
Henry loader in up position, ready to elevator bales of hay from the field to truck

He  saw the Henry Loader was still in it’s upright position, sitting in the middle of last field that had been harvested and wondered about the tower. He watched as two people, on on each end, levered the equipment from tall to flat in order to move it from field to barn.

A piece of hay equipment that scoops up hay bales in the field and raises them up into farm equipment for loading.
Henry loader in the down position ready to move from field to field

The big, old farm truck was there in the barnyard and the two tractors were parked close by.

An old International farm truck with a raised bed.

The visitor practically drooled over all the fun things we had to play with! If only he had been at the farm just a few days earlier. He could have seen the family using each piece of equipment along with all the time and physical labor needed to produce our hay crop. We consider it a necessity, but not necessarily fun. More like a labor of love.

However, standing next to our visitor, with his eyes open wide and admiration in his voice, I saw our equipment in a different light. I had to agree with this visitor. Yes, farmers do have the best toys.