Re: Is square baleing seriously that hard?

Posted by farmrgirl on June 21, 2005 at 02:37:47 from (209.214.200.27):

In Reply to: Is square baleing seriously that hard? posted by Stephi on June 19, 2005 at 14:06:52:

Wow! Reading all the replies to your question re: baling, sure makes me feel good about men's attitudes towards women and farming. I'm 42, and have been doing it in some form since I was 12. It started as a summer job as a kid, no money offered, just lunch and a chance to swim in the lake with friends after "chores".
I was assigned to a grease gun, case of grease and 27 hay wagons. To have that responsibility seemed like a really big deal at the time. Needless to say, I kept my eye on every turning wheel and listened for sounds they shouldn't have made. Year after year i'd be back and more responsibility I would earn. The year I turned 16 I finally got to work in the field, on a tractor. The owner of this farm granted me the chance to "tad" the hay. I was scared to death, literally shaking as I mounted the tractor. He said something right at that moment that opened my mind to a life that I would not have had otherwise and that was: "The operation of this tractor is not gender specific" I looked at him rather puzzled....He said: "that tractor doesn't know if you are a boy or a girl, your thoughts that it might know are your only limitation"

Today, I manage a 3,600 acre farm. Consisting of sod production, commercial tree production, A Vineyard producing vinifer grapes for The Biltmore House winery and a sandpumping operation. Farming has taken many turns in my life. Adapt and change to make it profitable. Haying, although to me was once the most rewarding part of farming doesn't add-up like it use to...Blending grasses, the science and competition of it all takes alot of fun out of it. Whew...This is a bit longer than I anticipated but the message is well worth stating to anyone who might hesitate at farming especially women. Learn about your equipment,listen to it. When something goes wrong.. stop, read and learn why it happened and then you fix it. Learn to ride side saddle in the seat and look back more than forward. Watch everyone around you and observe safety hazzards before they happen. Most of all...Be with someone who doesn't staunch your opportunity to become everything you want to become in whatever you choose to do. I think most everyone who replied to your question would agree that it's not the equipment that is holding you back....It's not even your boyfriend that is holding you back....It's you.
I'm a natural blonde too and trust me I hear more than my share...I have had to work much harder to gain respect from many of my so called counterparts because they question my abilities, because I am female. To take me seriously, In this line of work...I have to know what I am talking about. I have to get it right just to not hear them say well what do you expect she's a female. Wrenches,tools, shop equipment...they are not gender specific either.. Just get a bigger extension or cheater bar. I've got a JD4020 split and a Massey 1100 split in the shop right now and I am all over it. After all neither one of those tractors knows what my gender is....but Im'a guessing if'n they did they'd be ok with it. (Smile):}

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