[Strawbale] 3-string bales...

[Rob Tom]

On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 15:38:00 -0400, Denise Ohio <ohio at holytoledo.com>  
wrote:

> Whoops, this got bounced back---I cc'd the strawbale list. My bad.

>> I just spoke with a farmer in Eastern WA who said hardly anyone planted
>> wheat this year because the price was so shitty, there was no point.  
>> Man, that has got to be a tough way to make a living.


For as long as I can remember... okay, bad way to start anything that  
implies any length of time.

For as long as I _have known_ farmers, the price they get paid for  
anything has always been "shitty" (to use Denise's term) and continuing to  
plant crops and/or raise livestock year after year when the cost of  
production is seldom if ever rewarded with anything resembling a  
reasonable "living" (by city standards), one does wonder what the point is  
(again from a city perspective).

One year might be "okay" (okay in the sense that they break even or make a  
small profit) but more often than not, subsequent years aren't.

And yet, farmers choose to continue farming, and more often than not,  
taking jobs in the city to subsidise the farming. Obviously, they don't do  
it for the money.


But back to the choice of three-string bales in July...

If one looks at the map for US Winter Wheat planting/harvesting

    http://www.smallgrains.org/WHFACTS/uswinwhe.htm

one sees that farmers in SE Washington state do indeed begin harvesting  
their winter wheat during the period July 1-15, about the same time that  
farmers here in Ontario take their first cut of hay.

But if farmers didn't plant winter wheat this year then Timothy hay bales  
would be a suitable alternative to the wheat straw bales. Habib has used  
them often.

As for the engineering reasons for using hard-to-come-by 3-string bales as  
opposed to more readily available 2-string bales, I'd be interested in  
hearing the reasons. No doubt there may be some but nothing that can't be  
easily circumvented.


=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
<A r c h i L o g i c   at  c h a f f y a h o o   dot   c a >
winnow the chaff from my edress in your reply