A hay elevator is an elevator that hauls bales of hay or

straw Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry wikt:stalk, stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the crop yield, yield by weight of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, ry ...

up to a

hayloft A hayloft is a space above a barn, stable or cow-shed, traditionally used for storage of hay or other fodder for the animals below. Haylofts were used mainly before the widespread use of very large Baler, hay bales, which allow simpler handling ...

, the section of a barn used for hay storage. Hay elevators are either ramped conveyor belts that bales rest on, or a mechanized pair of

chain A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A ...

s that holds bales taut between them. The term ''hay elevator'' also includes machinery involved in the stacking and storage of bales. A typical hay elevator includes an open skeletal frame, with a chain that has dull 3-inch spikes every few feet along the chain to grab bales and drag them along. Prior to

rural electrification Rural electrification is the process of bringing electrical power to rural and remote areas. Rural communities are suffering from colossal market failures as the national grids fall short of their demand for electricity. As of 2019, 770 million ...

, barns were equipped with a vertical pulley and a horizontal track along which a bale of hay was guided manually.

References

Agricultural machinery {{agri-stub

See also

References