Beaver slide or Overshot

[Drummond Fraser]

I’m searching for plans to build either a beaver slide or overshot (or hay derrick, for that matter) to stack loose hay, and would appreciate any advice or recommendations folks may have on either, and the whole subject of putting up hay loose.

[Barw]

Yes I would be interested in plans to build a beaver slide
and a buck rake, any one out there have plans or some
guides too follow. Also interested in info on putting up loose hay. Any advice out there good & bad.
Barw

[Drummond Fraser]

Barw,

I think what I’ll do is write to Small Farmer’s Journal and ask their help with this. If I make any headway I’ll post a new thread with the information. It sounds like we have similar interests with regards to putting up hay. Let me know if you find anything about a source, or plans, for buck rakes, and any tips on training a team to the buck rake.

[Anonymous]

Lynn Miller’s book “Haying with Horses” has pictures of all kind of hay loaders and buck rakes.

[Drummond Fraser]

Thank you Kevin.

What a resource that book is! I am hoping to find plans, including all the dimensions of the lumber (including recommended types of wood) and parts, that would give me enough info to build, preferably a beaverslide stacker, from scratch. A more talented craftsman than I could probably work off the diagrams and pictures in the book. There likely is enough there to do some of the other types of stackers, although it would take me a bit to figure out the pulley systems.

There is a good layout describing the re-building of a buckrake from just the hardware. It would be helpful to have a source for the hardware (which was not traditionally used in my part of the world), but reasonable alternatives can likely be made or bought from the local hardware store.

I am also hoping that there are some resident experts on this site that can speak to putting up large stacks of loose hay, and offer some advice for setting up and doing the work. What a great clinic this would make, or even a demo at NEAPFD!

Drummond

[Carl Russell]

I have handled a lot of loose hay, on a small scale, but always by hand, and into the barn. I mean mowed, teddered, and raked with horses, then stacked and loaded by hand. I was never brave enough to build a stack, other than to get through a rainy spell, as I think our climate is too wet, and although I know it only spoils on the outside, I love good green hay, and I loathe rained on bleached and dusty hay, so I’ve always taken the extra effort to put it in the mow.

As far as NEAPFD, we will think about that. We were able last year to roll out some round bales which was teddered out and assumed its field character pretty reasonably. It might work. I have started trying to work out the details with a few local farmers to use some of their fields for field demos, but the grass crop at that time of year is green chop. We will be able to mow, with sickle bar and haybine, ted, rake, rotary/side, w/ GD and motorized carts, chop, but we won’t be handling hay in those fields. Let’s think about what we would need, and how it might work.

Carl

[Rob FLory]

I think a lot of the equipment(Buck rakes and Beaver slides etc.) that we see in SFJ as used in the west is best adapted to light hay yields in dry areas. As I picture them, you are gathering hay from over a large area before it fills. I think here in the east where grass grows heavier, the side-delivery rake is more appropriate.

We use an Oliver hay loader with a sheet-metal ramp and forks. We have an older rope and slat style that works more like a conveyer, like the apparatus that takes the straw to the binder in a reaper-binder. We haven’t restored that one yet. The hay loader’s reputation as a “man-killer” is well deserved. You have to be mighty tough to handle all that material coming at you on the hottest days of the year. We usually prefer to round up a couple extra people and pitch, but I suppose if we had to pay them we’d be using the loader more. We might do more of our haying later in the day if we lived on the farm rather than commuting, which would reduce the heat stress.

I agree with Carl that getting hay into the barn is the way to go. I sure don’t want to work that hard to harvest the hay only to leave it outside.

The more I use our 6-tine grapple(3 per side) the better slings start to look. Unfortunately we didn’t make the door big enough in our ox barn to handle slings. It takes us 10(ish) pulls to get a wagon load into the barn with the grapple. We are only about 6 years into the loose hay biz, so maybe we’ll figure out some efficiencies. It might make more sense to push the last 200 pounds of hay off the wagon and accumulate a larger pile rather than trying to clean the wagon with the grapple.

Rob Flory
Howell Living History Farm

[Drummond Fraser]

Rory, thank you for the post. I hope I get the chance to speak to you at the NEAPFD about how you run your operation. How many animals are feeding hay to over the winter? How do you get the hay from the barn to them? Thanks again.

Drummond

[Barw]

Yes we are on the same page Drummond.If I locate any info on
the buck rake I’ll post here
BarW

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[near horse]

Hi all,

I thought I saw a video piece from Rural Heritage (http://www.ruralheritage.com) with guys putting up hay using a beaver slide. I’m pretty sure:
1) you could get the tape/DVD from RH
2) the folks/group mentioned in the video would be of assistance

I’ve only seen them in use in SW Montana where now the method is to mow the hay, let it cure, rake into windrows with SD rakes and then push to the slide with either modified tractors or trucks – their version of buckrakes.

Other contacts you might try:
Doc Hammill – (http://www.dochammill.com) he’s a Montana horse farming guy.
Tillers International (http://www.tillersinternational.org) – in MI but they have tons of information using draft animals and equipment. Not to mention a couple of barns-worth of vintage equipment as resources.

All the best.

[near horse]

Hi all,

I thought I saw a video piece from Rural Heritage (http://www.ruralheritage.com) with guys putting up hay using a beaver slide. I’m pretty sure:
1) you could get the tape/DVD from RH
2) the folks/group mentioned in the video would be of assistance

I’ve only seen them in use in SW Montana where now the method is to mow the hay, let it cure, rake into windrows with SD rakes and then push to the slide with either modified tractors or trucks – their version of buckrakes.

Other contacts you might try:
Doc Hammill – (http://www.dochammill.com) he’s a Montana horse farming guy.
Tillers International (http://www.tillersinternational.org) – in MI but they have tons of information using draft animals and equipment. Not to mention a couple of barns-worth of vintage equipment as resources.

All the best.

Near Horse

[Neil Dimmock]

would these help?

[Neil Dimmock]

or this?

[J-L]

People still put up loose hay around here. Most use power sweeps(buck rakes) and farm hand loaders with the hay heads vs beaver slides or overshots.
We used this method until most of the siblings left the ranch and the labor pool dried up.
This method was used on fairly heavy hay as well as thin hay. Parts of our ranch that are irrigated will put up 4 ton to the acre in the only cutting you get. Getting your hay dry is not a problem here usually though. Lots of wind, which also keeps your stacks blown free of snow if you put them in the right place.
There are lots of old buck rakes and overshot/slide stackers around this part of the country to cannibalize for parts. But I’m sure you can make some thing work out of available material if you really put your mind to it.
Interesting post, I hope something comes of it.

[Author]

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