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April 2009
Back to Basics
Dear Friends,
With our high technology world, with field guidance systems, remote sensing and variable rate spraying and seeding operations, some tools never go out of style.
On Sunday, as I was scooping my way out of the house to the barn and machine shed, I was thinking about the basic scoop shovel. Whether it is throwing feed into the bunk for calves or scooping wet, dripping snow from the sidewalks or bunks after an April blizzard, there really is no other tool that works quite as well for these specific jobs.
The scoop shovel hasn’t changed much over the years. The old ones were made of steel. The newer models are made of lighter aluminum or plastic. Yet, the basic design and the length of the handle haven't changed all that much. "If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it," is the old adage, and I guess the folks who make scoop shovels have followed that concept for many years.
Sure we have loaders and skidloaders to do the big jobs of moving snow, dirt and manure, but to get into the corners of the barn, or the narrow sidewalks or bunks, a scoop shovel is really the only answer.
Another basic tool that we still use all the time is a pitchfork. Coupled with a tine scoop and a scoop shovel, I’m not sure there are many farmers who do not own this dynamic trio. What you can’t scoop with the shovel, you can usually get with a tine scoop.
The pitchfork just reminds me of the countless hours I spent as a kid, stomping down the corners at the top of a big haystack in our hay cage. The pitchfork got a good workout on those days. We pushed hay deep into the corners of the stack and stomped it down to pack it tight. We used the pitchfork to pull the hay up to make a kind of crown on top of the stack, so it would shed moisture.
And when we were finished with the stack, we usually threw the pitchforks down to the ground and prepared for a fast ride down ourselves, while hanging on for dear life to the hay buck attached to our loader, with my Dad at the helm.
Tine scoops also remind me of my childhood, and all of those Saturday mornings, pitching manure from our chicken barns and hog barns. Dad didn’t own a skidloader then, so the power tine scoop, operated by his sons, was the barn cleaning machine that was most often employed.
Basic tools and basic skills were revered in those days. As I was scooping on Sunday, I was reminded that the world changes, but our need for the basics still remains.
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
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