Testing Out Demo Rakes

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I started this week out in the 7700 John Deere tractor testing out a shiny new set of demo rakes that arrived last week. Bobbi taught me all of the controls and switches for the new rakes. There was a whole lot more to learn. Unlike the rakes I learned to use originally, these rakes had their own hydraulic panel opposed to the three hydraulic levers on the old rakes. The first field I tested my newfound knowledge on was the fields that I had previously cut last week with the swather. After a short learning curve, I was easily able to speed up and catch on to the new controls. I found that the new rake is far more efficient because there are so many adjustments to make for each individual field which vary in size, terrain, and density of hay laid down to pick up.

My favorite part of the new rake is now instead of smoking rocks and ant hills, I can easily avoid those dangers by simply lifting one side of the rake or the other with a switch. Although the new rake is great with all the switches and adjustments, I’d prefer the old rakes because of their simplicity. I feel like I could waste a whole day every time I use the new rakes, playing around with switches trying to make it perfect, whereas when I use the old rakes I hopped in and got the job done.

After I finished raking, I took the chance to refill my water, which I have found is a necessity with the sun beating down on my back. The short time it took to run to the house and back the hay was dry and ready to bail. I cannot bail the hay while it is wet for two reasons. The first reason is if the hay is too wet then the water will sit in the bail and mold, this can cause cattle to be sick which is obviously not a good thing. The second reason is when the wet hay is bailed, the water will try to escape and cause friction which could lead to a fire. I have actually seen this first hand while I was a firefighter back home, I fought a large fire caused by wet bails that killed many calves at a local feed lot.

While I was bailing, I ran out of net wrap which led to an opportunity to learn. Gerry showed me how to correctly install net wrap into a bailer, it is a “horsetail” trick. Instead of laying the wrap out flat, like I failed doing, the trick is to tie it into a horse tail, shove it in between the rollers and let the bailer eat it up. Once I had a run down from Bobbi about what fields needed to be cut and all the ditches hidden beneath the hay, I hopped in the swather and got to work. I knocked down a couple of fields which always takes a little longer than I expect it to. For me, swathing is both relaxing and stressful. Relaxing because it is a little like driving, which I enjoy doing, but stressful because there are a lot of things to keep an eye out for. Unfortunately, if I sit in the swather for too long my back starts to ache like an old man. The rest of the week played out in the same fashion, cutting, raking, and bailing.

Submitted by: Jaxon Ondracek
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team