{"id":175602,"date":"2025-04-07T13:35:43","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T13:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/agriculture\/one-horse-haying-equipment-facilities\/"},"modified":"2025-04-07T13:35:43","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T13:35:43","slug":"one-horse-haying-equipment-facilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=175602","title":{"rendered":"One Horse Haying – Equipment & Facilities"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Tines up, Ken on \u201cempty\u201d seat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One Horse Haying<\/h3>\n

by Ken Gies of Fort Plain, NY<\/em><\/p>\n

I dedicate this article to TOM KEAGAN, who, in a few short words, spurred me on. I wish I could have known him longer.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The greatest challenge I have faced while developing a functional one-horse farm has been haying. It has taken some time to design a good shaft cart, cut down a mower to four feet, learn to dumprake, and build SOMETHING to haul the hay to the barn. I started with a TRUE TEMPER \u201chayloader\u201d and a Ford pickup hood \u201chay slip.\u201d This was great for the first half acre. However, I was worried about finishing the next seven acres before it finished me. Next, I tried roping the hay. Even with a willing horse, I could not<\/strong> rope up a jag. I finished that first year having the hay round baled. King, my horse, hauled the bales to the barn on the pickup hood hayslip.<\/p>\n

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Tines down, Ken sits forward.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That winter I began researching buckrake designs. I picked the brains of a few old-timers, read old timey agriculture picture books, flipped restlessly through my SFJ\u2019s and even found a buckrake on a New Holland parts computer program! I came up with three possible designs: 1. PUSH TYPE, 2. PULL TYPE, 3. SIDE HITCH.<\/p>\n

The push type buckrake was clearly beyond both my horse\u2019s and<\/strong> my abilities.<\/p>\n

I tried a pull type but it worked like a tumble home rake. The side hitch rake was, well, too much side draft. King\u2019s ears crossed and his tail whistled back and forth in aggravation. I parked the thing alongside the fence and hooked up the dumprake\u2026<\/p>\n

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Hay bunching up.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For short distances, (less than 500 feet) piling up bunches of hay with the dumprake worked fine. I would collect and dump a haycock, then hold the teeth up and swing around a short distance later to collect and then grab the first bunch. I filled my 16\u2019 by 24\u2019 by 10\u2019 high barn with loose hay this way \u2013 dragging hairy dump-rake loads to the back door of the barn, dropping and forking it in. It was fun, but not fast.<\/p>\n

Somewhere along the way I bought Haying with Horses<\/em><\/a><\/strong> by THAT GUY\u2026. It proved indispensable for bathroom think time, mower tune up (very nice part of the book) and I read about buckrakes over and over.<\/p>\n

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Tines ride up on bunch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One day I hauled the buckrake up to the shop and stared at it for a while. Finally, in despair, I grabbed my hacksaw and started to cut off the side hitch tongue intending to scrap the whole thing. Suddenly, I had a brain bypass! (The only stroke of genius I\u2019ve ever had was marrying the right girl \u2013 and that<\/strong> wasn\u2019t my doing.)<\/p>\n

I moved to the end of the tongue and cut off the curve. I temporarily hooked a chain to my hitch cart and ran down to the field to try \u201cone last time.\u201d Something was seriously wrong! It was almost working! A few hours later I had a working one-horse buckrake!<\/p>\n

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Backed out, ready to slide under bunch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now I can offer the plans of something I built that works! The frame is nothing more than an old mobile home axle. It is about 8\u2019 wide. I used 8\u2019 long 2\u201d pipes for the tongue spaced 15\u201d apart and welded together at the hitchplate in a Vee.<\/p>\n

Not being a carpenter, I consider the basket my personal major wood building triumph. It is built of good grade 2\u201dx4\u201dx8\u2019 boards for the tines and cross pieces. I used a 2\u201dx8\u201dx8\u2019 for the end cap which adds a great deal of strength to the lift lever. I used galvanized deck screws (3 \u00bd\u201d) throughout so it is easy to replace any broken parts. The backstop is my own arbitrary design that includes the operator conveniences \u2013 a seat and a hook for the water jug. The rear left \u201cplatform\u201d is built from a 3\u201dx10\u201dx5\u2019 scrap board. I added a leaning board since balance is not my strong point.<\/p>\n

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Topping off.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The loading technique is a hybridization of Lynn (THAT GUY AGAIN) Miller\u2019s instructions for buckraking found in Haying with Horses<\/em>. I must stress that the hay be raked the same afternoon it is buckraked. If the hay sits in the windrow, it seems to settle into the stubble and load poorly. I bunch hay until the tines start to ride up on the hay. Then I back up a little, ease forward under the hay and bunch some more. I usually do this three or four times and then top off the load with my favorite long-handled 3-point pitchfork. Then I stand on the back of the lift lever and ride to the barn. I drop the tines, back up, and then swing hard to the left to clear the bunch. While King rests, I hand-load my little barn.<\/p>\n

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Taking bunch home.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I believe that one person with one good-sized horse (King is approximately 1600 lbs., 23\u201d collar, 18 years old) that likes or at least isn\u2019t afraid to sit on the britchen when backing can do about five acres without too much trouble.<\/p>\n

My #7 mower is cut down to 4 feet. I tried shafts but found that the side draft was excessive and wore King\u2019s left-side hair off. The hitch cart absorbs that force, both on the mower and the buckrake. I mow about two hours at a time and rarely cut more than an acre in that time. Maybe a bitty pony mower would draw lighter and boost productivity.<\/p>\n

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Detail of loaded lifting lever, thermos hook and pitchfork rack.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I use a five-wheel Farmhand rake. I set the wheels with about \u201ctwo fingers\u201d worth of ground pressure. (10-15 lbs.) This picks up most of the hay without a lot of draft. I can rake what I mow in less than half the time of mowing. Buckraking takes about as long as mowing the same area.<\/p>\n

Even though it has taken me three years to pull together a workable one-horse haying system, it has been worth it. Looking out at my row of haying equipment or admiring my barn full of loose hay stirs a sense of deep satisfaction, and that is beyond price.<\/p>\n

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Detail of tongue and hitchcart on one horse buckrake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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(Underside) Basket on frame with strap iron and lag bolts to connect.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Finishing a corner. Mowing with a cut down #7 McD with shaft cart.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Dropping first bunch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Collecting second bunch onto first.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Big hairy bunch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Big bunches must be hand dumped.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Photographic evidence that Ken can work.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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King watches Ken \u2026 work!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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5 wheel Farmhand rake, one horse hitch cart, set wheels very light.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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