Picking Up, Hauling & Stacking....The Final Haying Installment

After the baling of a field is complete the bales are picked up using the American Eagle bale wagon. This is Haymans favorite job. This fancy piece of equipment makes the clearing of a field of hay so much easier. Hayman already had a few bales on the truck when I started taking photos..........Here he is coming towards me, getting ready to pick up the next bale.
The bale wagon travels through the field at about 10 mph. Hayman does not have to stop the truck when he is picking up the bales, but moves through the field at pretty steady rate. He can bump a bale to move it into position, then the claw will grab onto the bale.

The claw reaches out and clamps down onto the bale, then lifts it up and onto the truck. It is a very interesting process to watch. Once the bale is slid onto the truck, Hayman will pick up another bale and it will be stacked on top of the first bale. Then they are pushed back to start forming the stack on the truck.
The truck will hold ten bales, stacked five high. It takes Hayman about six minutes to load the truck, then he heads to the stack yard to unload the stack.
Hayman is off to complete the load and I head over to the stack yard to await his arrival..........

Hayman arrives in the stack yard to unload his load of hay. He lines up with the stack and backs in...........

As he is backing in, he drops the bed of the bale wagon so that the stack on the truck is parallel to the large stack.

Closer, Closer and Closer to the main stack.......................

Then as the truck touches the main stack, Hayman drops the load to the ground and extends the push off foot to hold the stack in place as he pulls away from it.

Push off foot at work in photo below............then Hayman heads back out to the field for another load. It takes between four and five hours to completely clear a field, depending on tonnage, length of haul to and from field and road conditions.
The finished product............a nice straight hay stack! ( Hayman is a perfectionist when it comes to the stacks! )
The stacks will now await the semi trucks to haul them to the dairy in Idaho. All of Mr. B.'s hay is sold to one specific dairy in Idaho.

In summation, the boys put up around 750 acres of their own hay, four times throughout the summer. They also pick up around 500 acres of custom hay work for friends and neighbors. The motto the boys adhere to during the summer is....."High Speed and Low Drag."

If you have any questions, feel free to ask, Hayman loves to talk about what he does for a living. ( and he'll talk to you about his favorite hobby too............fly fishing. )