Some farmers use machines that tie the hay into round bales. Others don’t bale it at all. They use stackers to pile it into tall stacks where it is kept till the cows are ready to eat it.
The stacker fits onto the tractor. When it was first invented, farmers thought it was a sort of luxury, because it was used so seldom. Then they discovered that they could put it to work on other jobs, too. If a platform of boards is fitted across the forks of the stacker, it turns into an elevator that a man can stand on. Then he can paint the barn or pick apples from high branches without having to climb up and down ladders.
MILKING MACHINES
It would take a lot of work to milk all of Al’s cows. So he uses milking machines. When a man milks a cow, he squeezes with his fingers. Instead of fingers, the milking machine has four soft rubber funnels that fit over the cow’s teats. A pump squeezes the funnels, presses the milk out and sends it through hoses to the milk can.
A farmer has only two hands. His milking machine has four funnels with hoses. So it can work much faster, and he can have several machines going at once.
You’d never guess it, but a cow is a nervous, fussy animal. She lets down her milk easily if the same person or the same machine squeezes on her teats with the same rhythm every day, but any kind of change or hurry upsets her. Then she’s hard to milk. And so Al’s machine is built with a very accurate timer which makes the funnels squeeze exactly forty-eight times a minute.
A good farmer tries to make life calm and comfortable for his cows. Even the names for some things in Al’s barn have a comfortable sound. The place where the cows wait to be milked is called the loafing pen. The room where they stand for milking is kept perfectly clean, and it’s called the milking parlor.
Before the machine is attached, the cows’ udders and teats must be washed clean. Al has fixed an upside-down shower bath for his cows. He built a concrete pen with sprays coming up through the floor. The showers clean the cows and make them feel so calm that he never has any trouble milking them.