Rural Ramble

By Dan Ferguson, Manager of Producer Relations dan@ontariobeef.com • www.ontariobeef.com

A Hay Situation

Mid-winter has me counting my bales on a daily basis. The wisdom of workshop speakers discussing alternative feeding options to extend our feed supplies are finally making sense. I have bought another hay feeder with a floor, but small enough so my neighbours won’t notice my spending spree. Maybe I can treat the cows with DDGs, screenings, mill sweepings or some of that fieldstored-on-the-stalk cob corn left out for mother nature to dry down. But I am more of a conventional guy. The majority of my summer’s harvest is tarped or lined end to end out in the yard. My fancier hay is meticulously piled in my hay storage barn three rows high. Sometimes I reserve that top row for smaller loser bales for ease of stacking and to ensure they don’t weaken the stack if buried in the bottom row. I have a pair of loader tractors (my entire fleet) which are well suited for the job and come fully loaded with a poor man’s cab or “sunshade canopies.”

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My hay situation occurred after a busy day of hauling and stacking with rain in the forecast. I had made good progress and at the end of the day I had backed one tractor in alongside my last three-tier rows so it would be out of the rain over night. On my approach to the barn the next morning I realized my routine was not going to be usual. A top tier bale had rolled off the stack onto the canopy and was pressing the lighter gauge steel bars under the canopy at a scary angle right above the joy stick and hydraulic valve body. They are both very delicate and expensive parts that wouldn’t fare well if that 700 pound bale sheered them off the side of my tractor.

I had to lift that bale off the canopy and my other loader tractor couldn’t reach over the hood or get around behind because the trapped tractor was blocking access and the hay was piled behind it. I looked up and had a brilliant idea. The truss looked pretty strong so I set about rigging up a pully and a chain, and grappled the chain to the crushing bale with some extra loader tines I had purchased but not installed. I pounded the tines in each end of the bale carefully so as not to jar the bale further down onto the delicate hydraulic controls. I thoughtfully spread my pully connection to two trusses to ensure strength. What could possibly go wrong? Whenever I have to ask myself that question most of my audience will know the answer. I was making gains pulling the chain over the pulley with my Canyon truck in low 4X4 in reverse so I could see my progress. I had air between the tractor canopy and the bottom of the lifted bale and was ready to drive the tractor out – what a mouse trap I had devised. But as I should have known, the trusses weren’t made for this load and…snap. Lucky for me the mouse was not in the trap and that canopy actually held once more to protect the hydraulics. I consider myself lucky most days, but this day I had horse shoes and a very fast heartbeat.

I had already invested two hours into this rescue operation and now I had to attack the hay in that barn by coming in from the other end and remove one bale at a time – three high and two wide – to make my way to the backside of my trapped Kubota and spear that potentially very expensive bale of hay off the canopy.

Later that day I called my carpenter son to repair the snapped truss and my electrician son to re-wire the lighting wires that had been compromised. I’m sure they shake their heads more often than I know at the situations I unwittingly create as I chore away. I’m always glad the next generation improves upon the previous generation, although most of my readers would agree, I set the bar pretty low. Be safe out there and think ahead so you don’t get into your own hay situation. OB