We get two different types of racks, racks for feed (alphalfa) and racks for bedding (straw). The alphalfa smells sweet enough to eat. You know those purple flowers you see on the side of the road sometimes, they look like this:
| Wait, that's not right... |
| That's better! You can actually eat the flowers. |
Then they cut it (the first cutting is generally not very good, you want the second or ideally the third cutting of alphalfa sometimes there is a 4th, I think, but for some reason, I think it's not always the best). Then, they let it dry, they 'rake it' (but they use a piece of equipment that's unlike any rake I've ever seen) then they bail it, and stack it on a hay rack. We hitch it up to the big diesel truck and take it back to the farm to unload.
| This is what a Hay Rack might look like. |
Then, they use an elevator to get it off the rack and up on the stack (haha, that rhymes, I'm a poet and didn't even know it-alright, I'll stop, sorry)
 |
| This is an eleavator-I know, not the kind of elavator I was acustom to either...It's amazing what you can learn on the farm. |
Then you pick up the racks of straw, and repeat. There are many different sizes of bails, we use what my husband calls, 'idiot bails' they are a lighter bail, I think about 40 pounds, there are other bails that are a little larger, then you get in to the ones that are round (weighing between 660-880lbs), they usually sit in the middle of the fields forever, and if you have eyesight like mine, when uncorrected, they may appear to be buffalo in the great white Iowa wilderness...
We get our racks in the summer, and they need to last all through the winter months when the sheep can't graze on the grass around the farm. They also need bedding for the buildings when they are inside during the winter and in the nursery.
Usually, when the boys get done, their arms are all torn up, they have remnants of alphalfa or straw all over them and they blow snot rockets in the shower. Good thing they shower at my mother-in-law's house most of the time because if there is one thing that I hate, it's snot rockets being blown in my shower-shame on you!
(*Actually, I'm told that when you go to college for Agriculture, specifically in courses related to animals, they teach to to blow snot rockets as a way of properly following government guidlines when going from farm to farm, so that you don't retain any germs/bacteria, etc in your nasal cavity protecting yourself and hopefully not spreading disease to other animals-this is what my husband tells me anyway...probably to maintain his 'snot-rocket rights'.)
Another side note: I'd like to apologize to Mrs Feeney for not blogging recently, I promise to try to be better. =)
