Loose Haying with Horses on the Davis Family Farm
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 เม.ย. 2019
- John Davis of Kennan, Wisconsin and his sons Justin and Jacob load their hay into a wagon with the power of two home raised, mixed breed draft horses. Joe gets great footage of the entire process.
John Davis farms a small acreage and grows hay to feed his horses. John discusses with Joe his philosophy on sizing a farm to where is can make a profit and do most of the work yourself. He uses the comparison of making round bales with a tractor vs. loose haying.
Joe follows them as they hook up the hay loader to the well-trained draft horse team and head to the hay fields. They had cut the hay four days earlier and it was nice and dry. Justin explains the process of loading the hay at the edges of the hay wagon, in a way that allows the pile to be stable and quite high.
After loading the wagon they return to the huge gambrel barn to offload the hay. The horses are unhitched from the wagon and led to munch on the drooping hay as they ready the hay trolley system for loading. The grapple hooks are set in a large bunch of hay. The horses are connected to the line and pull it to hoist the hay to the loft door. Once there, the rail carries it into the barn. Justin is int he barn and when he yells "HO" those horses out side stop and the hooks release. Justin then spreads or "mows" the haymow - using a pitchfork to level out the hay. And repeat...
It is a well "oiled" system and a joy to watch this family work together with the horses they have trained well.
The smell has to be amazing.... I remember this from my Grandpa's farm in the early 70's... I loved the smells of fresh cut hay and fresh bales and old grease and the barn... Glad to know they still exist..
Nothing like the smell of freshly stored hay, unfortunately the smell disappears after a week or two. I used to milk cows beside our hay barn and used to love smelling the fresh hay during milking.
The Davis family is stunningly more blessed than many. The patience John showed when his sons were little yielded a bounty far more valuable than money (although money does help survival.)
In my farm community, we've gone from 18 farmers to 3, none younger than 55 on a 3 mile stretch of road I lived on. The most impressive farmer was from World War II Netherlands. He used French Intensive methods, starting his crops a month earlier than his neighbors under glass cloches, fertilized with manure and much more. On under 80 acres he provided food and money needs for his own four person household, his parents and in-laws who all lived on the property. He had no debt. Repeat, he had no debt. They did have a very neat, clean and organized farm. His daughter gave up the idea of farming after being told at Michigan State University modern farming wasn't feasible using the method her family employed. Farming requires hundreds of acres at minimum they told her. Today that farm has been subdivided into boutique housing units half of which are owned by people who don't live in the state. The daughter? She relocated with her husband to the city before her father died and discovered they couldn't afford to have children. That's the end of that tradition. Got to love experts who disperse superior knowledge and research.
The three farms in my family were sold largely to pay hospital bills and my Mom's honest belief that... "White farmers have it hard enough... Black farmers will never make it. Its best you move to the city, that's where you'll find a better living.."
Today, in what was a strong agricultural area, in place of hundreds of many multi-generational small farms there are less than a dozen larger farms, lots of vacation homes and like me, most of my peers relocated to a nearby city. A good number of us ache for a lifestyle like the Dutch farmer mentioned above. Instead we've been herded to provide labor for corporate America, where cities can "more effectively" provide services to people in high density urban apartments (who needs to own anything except corporations? Thank you very much Jane Jacobs!!) and until the recent past, neighbors were upset if they saw any lawn or patio space growing vegetables.
The one warning I might give to the Davis family is it is dangerously difficult to find a spouse who might find satisfaction with a farming husband. To find a spouse who doesn't tolerate, but love farm living will be far more valuable than gold. Just make sure they weren't educated at a land grant school that taught infinite growth is the only thing worth pursuing. Their best best for a potential spouse is to find "schools" teaching draft horse skills and such. I wish them success, a growing satisfaction with life and thank them for their example.
When time slowed down and everything didn't have to be done in an instant. It looks like a peaceful lifestyle with all of the animals. You really do appreciate the process in which his job was done. Life wasn't meant to be rushed all the time. The good old days.
You know I think about that quite often of how things use to be and how much easier it was
Just discovered this channel. Haven't seen a loaded hay wagon like this since I was a kid growing up in the country. So nice that the team was given a snack of the fresh hay they had just worked to bring in. So rewarding to all those who work so hard. Love how the dog helped to pull the rope.
The man and his sons are certainly not afraid of hard work! He has instilled great values in his kids. Reminds me of the times I use to load hay bales on a truck, each weighing about 75# for 8-10 hours at a time. It really toughened me up when I did that sort of work for my dad.
Thanks for reminding me of my younger years 65 years ago. I wouldn't trade those memories for anything except for a couple of things: a new back and hip joints .
Everybody needs a dose of farm living in their live because it's a very humbling experience and it makes one appreciate life itself.
One thing you cant see in a video is how hot it is man is it hot in those fields
One truly cannot feel anything but humble when mucking out stables.
now this man has the knowledge of 100 youtuber homestead channels combined . a treasure to see
It is great to see
Watching this... my mind inserted the rich smell of fresh dried hay.
Only people who worked on a farm would have that kind of experience.
So many people are never fortunate to experience and understand the allure of the unique odor that dried hay presents.
Thank you for sharing this video. Great footage. And thank you to the great family that shared this moment with you.
This brought back many childhood memories for me.
Um, mow someone's lawn? That is literally what the job entails, just on a larger scale.
@@peaceraybob the smell of properly dried hay is NOT the same smell as a new cut lawn.
I appreciate the smell of a new cut lawn, but dried hay has a very different and distinctive smell. Once you experience it, you will never forget it.
He. Is a good dad to his boys.they are blessed.
My father and I made hay. He loose laid it and piled it loose. He usually tapped it. He would loose some due to mildew but mostly it stay perfect. We used to haul it on the back of his 2 ton truck. As a 12 year old it was alot of fun up on the high mound of the bouncy stack of hay on the back of the truck. As a 14 year it was really fun driving the truck and you would escape the horrid black flies. Not long after I was 15 dad started buying his hay.
We use to stack the hay on the truck with a pitch fork. We would pitch fork in onto the truck then stack in laying the hay on the outer edge of the truck. So it would not fall off we would lay the next layer of hay fringing on the layer below it but closer to the center of the truck. This would hold the hay that was half falling off the truck. Dad made hay alot but I was only helping him for a couple of years.
I see a Honest hard working, loving father. He is rich in God's Blessing.
K km k
Lols, even the dog helps put the hay away 😂😂😂. He is just too cute playing with the rope.
At 6 years old my job was to drive the team. Pulling the wagon & a new Idea hay loader. As my dad loaded the hayrack. I would climb up the stander in front of the rack. When we got to the barn. My job was to ride the horse. Pulling up the hay fork full of hay waiting for dad to yell whoa. Then turn around & ride back to the barn waiting for the next fork full. I had my hands full.
I remember haying with horses and the old hay loader, I often drove the team, while my granddad and uncle balanced the load. That is just one of the many fond memories I have of helping out on the farm that affected my adult life in so many ways.
I cried my eyes out. I'd give everything for him to pass on his knowledge to me. Praise to whatever you call it or imagine it to be for the love of this man. On the eighth day, God made farmers like him.
This video took me back some seventy years ago; no work with horses; however, I was able to drive the small Ferguson tractor to pull up the loose hay into Uncle Henry's barn where my brother Gerald and dad Charles stacked it in the barn loft. Uncle Henry manned the wagon. I played the role of the 'horses' in the unloading of the wagon, forward and backward. Thanks for the memories!
I smell the hay even from here in Turkey. I remember the days I had visited my late uncle's field. Thank you for bringing the memories of past days from 45 years ago.
Traditions, ethics, and manning, very important things we are losing! God bless!
That is a magnificent well maintained barn I am sure it has served the farm very well over the years. I remember some of the older farmers talking about how when they started out years ago most usally built barns prior to building houses, the barns were very crucial to the farm moreso than the family shelter. Duringmost of the
year if needed the family could stay in the barn during bad weather periods rain mostly. 🌧, the houses were usally built during slack periods during the growing season what was called layby time and in the winter.
i was really young but i remember my uncle bringing in the hay this way those were great days thankyou for this video
I'm so glad to see John is still at it! I visited him in 2008 before I moved back west. His small dairy operation was one of the best I've seen. Best wishes for 2021!!
This country was built by hardworking people like Davis. We need more upright people like people like him.
@Jay Caldwell merchants and lawyers came after the first pioneers who braved Atlantic. I guess there were not many lawyers and merchants on Mayflower.
Hobby farmers?
Thank you so much for this video. The barn & that mow with the trolley brings back a lot of good childhood memories.
Been there, done that. Started using a one horse plow at 8 years old. Hired out to a neighbor farmer to help with the haying. He taught me to build the loads in the field, then used a single horse to pull the hay up into the barn. When the load was finished, I had to go up into the hay loft and 'mow it out' . Very dusty and masks didn't exist. Temperature in the hay loft easily exceeded 110 degrees. I could fit right in with this operation! Worked hard and ate like a horse too! Fond memories.
@Homer Simpson , two real live poisons, neighbor.
I actually used to work with Justin at Menards while he was in college for farming. He told me that same thing when it comes to building you always start with the sides. He was always a hard worker and very enjoyable to be around.
In my growing up days we never had any machinery, it was all done with a horse and by hand. We just had one horse. her name was sweet bess. We would bring in the hay with a chain and shock it up around a pole by hand and get it as tall as we could reach. There was not one thing easy about doing it that way but we always got it done. The last two years we farmed my grandpa had a man come in and bail our hay. He was gettin pretty old and had some health problems and grandma passed away and i think he just give up on living. I was hauling coal pretty steady and didn't have a lot of time to help either so the farm was pretty much ended. I really enjoyed this video and could almost smell the cut hay and the horses too. Lots of memories sure came back.
I'm 68 now and as a teen on my Grandpa's farm I did this same work. It's hot dusty and prickly work. I hated it but it's fun to look back on.
Brilliant! I was thinking all the while of the old song 'Spending a day on top of a load of hay'. That hay loft would be a good place to spend a cold winter's night.
Thanks for showing this. I sort of grew up on my grandparents farm in N/W TN. My father was in the military and when he went overseas we would move back to TN and live on the farm. I have vague memories of my grandpa having a pair of white horses/mules before he bought a tractor. I was to young to know and understand how to farm. It was a fantastic place to grow up on. Sort of like Tom Sawyer. I now understand how all that equipment/machinery worked. Mr Davis looks just like my grandpa. My best childhood memories are from that farm. Too bad America has lost this. Maybe with this rural heritage info, people can get back to being healthy and get out of the rat race. Having nothing but my imagination and a pocket knife to make my life perfect. No fears, or threats or technology to interfere with a magical life. Sorry for the long winded message.
This brings back great childhood memories of haying at my grandfather's farm in Perth, Ontario, Canada. His team of horses would back the wagon load of hay up the ramp to the 2nd floor of the barn by themselves. Grandpa would just tell them to pull forward to turn at the bottom of the ramp, line them up, then tell them to back up. They stopped when they had the wagon near the back wall and they were standing on the floorboards. What a beautiful site. They were the most gentle horses I ever had to privilege to meet. Thank you for the memories.
Lots of good memory's! I was raised on my grandfathers farm in central New York near Syracuse in the 50's and that's the way we did haying. Loved the video!
Very neat to see. Thanks for sharing!
Very interesting video. Beautiful video.
Thanks for showing the closeups of the trolley; always wondered how that worked.
You are a pride to the USA .
I watched hundreds of videos about agriculture in the usa but yours is the best for me .
I am from the Atlas mountains in the south of Morocco we used to do all this by hand .It is very hard work it is usually done in May which very hot .
But these techniques you have are just fantastic .
best regards
Very beautiful horses. Nicely trained great video
I could watch this for hours- thank you for sharing your life.
Great video and what a loyal dog!! He didn't have to be out there in that heat but he did it. I put up hay with my grandfather in the 70s. Square bailer and Farmall tractor
That you for sharing :-)
Brings back memories of working with Percherons in northern Canada, hauling hay by sled to the cattle over the winter, and hauling grain/baled hay by wagon in the summer. It was hard work, but the horses made it enjoyable :-)
Saw so much field parked implements growing up on grandparents farm. Watching how they were in use in these videos is like family photos.
Great video. My grandparents had 100 acre dairy farm south of Buffalo NY. Farmed with horses and horse drawn equipment. I spent hours in his fields helping him farm! Your video brings back many fond memories!
I really like the horse-drawn tedder. Awesome man, thanks for the memories of my childhood.
All that fancy new equipment. My Dad made us 4 boys use pitchforks to load and then unload it into the hay mow. We did get to use a truck and a M tractor to pull a wagon so we didn't have to do that. But we did it every weekend during winter until it was all hauled in. In North Dakota. In the 60's.
Very interesting. Only dealt w/ bailed hay, never fed lose hay. Thank you for sharing.
Wonderful. My childhood memories go to the village in Slovakia where they had no horses and no tractors. Only cows. The cows were used to plow the small fields with poor soil on stepe hills. And to bring the hay and the potatoes from the fields. And giving the milk and calfs to be eaten. Very universal, calm and smart, precious cows. The horses were a luxury, not providing anything to eat. Only the richest could afford to have them. Everything else was done manually by humans. There were no such wonderful mechanisms like in this video.
My ancestors survived in hard conditions like this and were even grateful to have their own fields to work on. Some men left their families for several years to go working to the US just to be able to buy some land. Some just died there and never saw their families again. Then came the communists and took them all the land and the cows. Some folks went to prison just for trying to keep their family farm together. Now it is hard to restore that old respect to the land and family farming.
It's repugnant to hear people pine for the old days of the Soviet Union. I'm sure you set them straight!
That's where this country is heading. Stop voting for demoRats.
How wonderful.
very well done!
So many memories for me! Thank you Gentlemen.
Glad you enjoyed it
When I was a out10 yes. Old I drove the team around the ends of the row then go back to loading the front of the hatch. Brings back lots of memories.
Not a much worse feeling than when you are sweeping loft floor n January 😬 awesome looking hay that he was raking 👍👍 you guys make it look easy👍👍
j ai l'impression de revenir un siècle en arrière, mais quelles belles images, l'humilité de ces hommes, le papa ,pilier de la famille qui perpétue la vie d'une autre époque, ces gens n'ont peut pas besoin de cette vie stressante d'aujourd'hui, enfin que Dieu les accompagne dans cette tâche rude .
Truly a beautiful sight to behold!
Beautiful video, thanks for posting.
Glad you enjoyed it
Excellent Program!
We put hay up in the 50's similar to this except we pulled the wagon and loader with a 1939 Farmall H. Dad built the load and my brother and I worked the hay mow spreading the loose hay. Sure was hot in the hay loft when you were getting close to the peak of the barn roof in June early July. Brings back good memories!
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Even the Dog helped bring in the Hay now thats team work !!! great video !
I bought a set of these claws years ago at a farm sale. Just a piece of history to remind me of growing up on our farm. Lucky for my brother and I we always had a small square baler. My brother in law talked about using a hay lift on squares on time at the start of haying season. The floor was bare and the first lift had a few heavy bales in it. When they dropped, they went through the mow floor.
When I was about 4 years old I helped my grandfather unload the loose hay with the tongs, I would watch out the back window of his old pickup truck and tell him when to go and when to stop. (I considered myself the strawboss). He had horses but he used them to get pulpwood in the winter with a sleigh.
I also remember the hay being brought in this way on my
Grandparents farm, my poor grandpa worked all day just to get away from my bat crap crazy grandma! Thank you for reminding me of my sweet grandad
Super work and super farm! A good thought from Dristor DC Romania East Europa! 🏆👍
Very very good nice job. My heart very very happy so does this horse work. Very lovely horse. God bless you.
Been around loose hay barns but never seen one in action. That's quite a bit of work, I can see why farmers went to compression balers.
Still need that in the fifties. Instead of horses, we pulled loader with old dodge rack body and used Caterpillar 15 ( hand crank) to raise hay in barn. Never worked so hard in my 76 years, but never was happier than on the farm.
My Grand Dad built our barn in 1912 this way for storing hay. It hasn't been used for loose hay since perhaps the 1940s. I've always known how it was done but have never seen it done before today.
Great video. I helped my neighbor shock hay. We did all the loading and putting in the barn by hand. Small farm, thank the Lord. My dad loaned me out to him to teach me work ethic. 8 hours for around $20 and a sandwich.
@Jay Caldwell you know it! Lol
Brings back memories for sure.
This is lovely to see so real and good people
For machines used back then , they did not leave much on the ground. very impressed with this video. well done.
Amazing to watch. That is 3 very clever men.
Its a great thing to see father and sons working together.thTs raer anymore
Excellent video and a fine example of the hard working farmers of America.
Memories. Thank you 😊
Liked and subscribe to your channel! Salute from Romania 🇷🇴
I've been back several times and it's just as good
A man proud of his farm and the way he works. My back gives me trouble just by watching him walk. It is great that someone still works like this but I would rather have a nice last few years.
I think you'd have to weight train to keep your body in shape for it, make sure all the muscles are being used. Farriers discover that, their backs go if they don't weight train, or something to work the whole muscle structure.
But by the end of one of those days, the last thing you'd feel like doing is training.
He probably would rather be farming at home than anything. And when people stop working they start dieing.
Looks exactly like my grandfather's farm. Same hay tedder and loader. That loader is relentless. It keeps dumping the hay, and you have to stack it NOW, because more is coming right behind it. A good discussion of the art of building the load, too. My grandfather had similar hay fork for unloading, except it was entirely inside the barn, and they would drive the load into the barn to unload it.
I was blessed to have helped an older farmer to have put hay up the same way only with an old tractor not horse's
Pure happiness. This is the life i want.
In about 1960 this is how my neighbors did their hay in SE Ohio. They never owned a tractor. They had a wagon with a boom pole on it used to pick up and stack the corn shocks. The fall corn fields looked just like the Amish ones today. I was helping with this job one fall with just the neighbor friend who was 3 or 4 years older than me. As we picked a corn shock up we saw a bunch of black snakes coming out from under it. The horses I think could smell them as they started stomping and whinnying. It was a warm late fall day. My neighbor friend was trying to calm the horses but a couple of the snakes had made their way to under the horses. I was watching the snakes as they were really weird looking with white caps over their eyes as they must have been preparing to shed. All of a sudden the horses bolted. The wagon with us and about a half a load of corn shocks went flying thru the field. Wasn't too bad a first but then they turned and hit the corn stubble going 180 to the rows. This made the ride you might say rough. Then corn shocks then us started flying from the wagon. As I stopped rolling I came up on one elbow and watched the wagon over turn and the the tongue snapped off. The horses with the tree and what was left of the tongue when around the barn and out of my sight. On the other side of the barn was the door leading to the horse's stalls. My friend's dad came running from the house and crossed the road to the barn. I could hear his voice as I was just getting up. Although I don't think he was ever in the service he sounded like a drunken sailor. My friend and I walked to the barn and the old man was coming out of the horse stalls with parts of the harness as the horses had torn it up by both trying to go through the door at the same time. A door that was just a little wider than one horse. It took hours for the old man to calm down so he would listen to what happened. Those horses were always calm and followed voice commands. You could ride them as well with no bridle, just a thin rope around the neck. This neighbor friend of mine delivered the GRIT magazine riding one of these big draft horses. I went with him one time and as we got close to being home, he turned to me riding behind him on this horse. He said get ready to bail. Before I could ask why the horse broke to a gallop and was speeding up fast. My friend threw a leg over the horse's neck and bailed into the grass along the road. I did the same. The horse run through the stall door into his stall. I looked at my friend and he said "that darn horse does that every time I get home".
Wow such a wonderful channel!!! This channel deserves ten folds more subscribers. It's such a gem!!! I subscribed right away.
This takes me back 70 years
I miss my grand fathers farm .he taught us kids everything we need to know ..thank you for this..
what lovely people, proper farmers in my eyes.
I grew up on a farm that had one of these hay rakes/collectors rusting away in the trees and rocks of the wind brake grove. I can remember looking at it and wondering just what the heck that thing had been used for. I now finally know. Thanks
Good horses, they enjoy the work too. Border collie also. We've a big claw at the top of our barn when they used to do it that way. I think it's still there. I'll have to check. Put up many of square bales for feeding the cattle in the winter. We just put round bales in the loft now.
Los felicito, admiro el pais rural y su gente en Estados Unidos; son la reserva moral de norteamérica y sus cimientos.
Dios los bendiga.
tHANKS FOR MAKING THIS VIDEO!
Grew up doing bales. Loose or bales, I still got to itching the arms.....lol talk about a well set conditioning,, lol I would not trade that for anything. I happen to love where I am at in my life and this brings back both great and tiresome memories. Thank you.
The good old days. Magnificent.
This is amazing to watch....I would love to have a set up like that.
Love this. Hello from europe.
that is so amazeing my dad did that when he was young put up hay like that with his dad time i got around technolgy was improveing
Enjoy watching your video
This is unbelievable to watch. Unreal. So thankful to see this! Thank you for sharing! (I am researching urban development in the late 1800s-early 1900s and I was looking for a video of horses pulling a cart making a you-turn.... wondering how much space is needed for horses and buggy for a turnway. How tight can an average rider turn a horse and cart? Connecting this to the use of alleyways and how a city would handle an alleyway with a dead end in the late 1800s. If you happen to know, I am all ears!)
I helped haying using an Allis Chalmers Roto round baler, the farmer used the hay forks to unload the wagons and lift six round bales at a time to the mow after dropping them they were put in place. Square bales would break apart if dropped that far.
This is the first time I have seen the whole operation at one time, I have seen bits and pieces here and there before but this is a treat.
Seems to be a universal truth to haying. Pay attention to the edges/outsides and the middle will take care of itself. I remember my Dad telling me that when I first started running the round baler.
Thank you so much for sharing this. We had to cut our cable lose, we got tired of paying spectrum 178.00 just to watch basic channels/
been there done that when i was kid n the 50's, they have new hay wagons and new hayloaders, nice
amazing video
My father had a machine that looked almost the same.we called it ,the hay loader, it had a solid chain with forks that went from the bottom to the top of the loader, we still have this machine.
💘 from Texas. BEAUTIFUL horseys......LOVE em