Trego's Mountain Ear

"Serving North Lincoln County"

Tag: Farm

  • Mowing Hay

    I stopped mowing when a young hound decided to come close and check out the operation. A comment from Renata made me realize that most folks haven’t mowed hay, and haven’t seen, first hand, the danger a mower is to small animals. Then I thought of the differences in mowers, and what makes the old sickle bar mower more dangerous to small animals.

    Add the tall grass and alfalfa to this photograph, and it becomes obvious how the cutting blade is hidden from small animals – and many of us who have used one have had the experience of hitting a fawn with it. It’s less common to get a dog’s foot – but it can happen.

    I’m using a drum mower – and I suspect it’s a bit safer than the old sickle bar mower, but I’m not sure, and I’d much prefer to stop and waste a few moments than hurt a dog. Here’s what a drum mower looks like:

    The cutting takes place by 3 small blades that rotate quickly with the drum. It’s probably as dangerous to small animals – but the drums rotate quickly and are loud. The sound, added to the height of the mower, makes it a lot easier to see. Mine, has 2 drums, and covers only 4 feet to the right of my tractor – sickle bar mowers usually run 7 feet, and I’ve used 9 foot mowers – far harder to see into the tall grass and alfalfa we mow.

    I think it’s a good year when all the fawns get away. As an old man, I now watch for turkeys – small animals that weren’t there when I first mowed hay. So I got to meet a nice little hound as I mowed hay, and took a break to minimize the danger. I think the noise and the profile of the machine already minimize the risk – but coming to a complete stop until the little dog found something more interesting was in her best interest, and mine.

  • What is a Farm

    What is a Farm

    A dozen years ago, I wrote “What is a Farm” and now I have one.

    The bottom line that defines a farm is production.  “The current definition, first used for the 1974 census, is any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year. (1992 Census of Agriculture).”  It’s kind of fun to be able to quote myself, and find that the commentary is still accurate 12 years later.

    This July, I harvested 275 little round bales of grass hay, and stored them in the log shed.  I figure if I sell them at $4 each, the place makes the minimum to be a farm.  Logically, that makes me a farmer, for the first time in my life.  I remember seeing a neighbor in Ag Hall when I worked for Extension – and commenting to Todd that he was the first farmer I had seen in that building . . . to be fair, I hadn’t worked in Ag Hall all that long.  Now that I’m a farmer I do have to sell those cute little bales to actually qualify.

    Since I’ve already done the research, I can help others determine if they also qualify: “The definition also makes it easy to be a “small farmer”: if a family has a couple dozen hens and eats organic eggs from its own free-range chickens, the family probably produces enough to be living on a farm. Similarly, a two-Holstein-steer feedlot with all purchased feed can meet the definition of a farm. Obviously, a large hog confinement facility is a farm, even if it lacks plows and fields.” 

    This table shows how the government’s definition of a farm has changed over time: