Youth Writing Contest: A Day in the Life...

By Parker Walker-Wentland for Agri-Times NW MILTON-FREEWATER, OR—

All my life I have wanted to drive the round silage baler. When I turned 8 years old, I started fluffing hay. Then I started little baling. One time I forgot to put twine in the baler and went two rows without noticing it. I had to hurry to get more twine and keep baling before anybody noticed. It was just this summer that I started big baling. It was a lot different from making 3-tie bales. It takes a lot longer to start the baler. The controls are different. The tractor has a different shift pattern. I like big baling because you go faster, but I like 3-tie baling because you plug up less. Once I plugged up the big baler so badly that I had to call my Dad and brother to come help. It took them thirty minutes to clean out per plug up, and I had plugged it three times on just that one field. I still haven't gotten to drive the round silage baler—maybe next year. Speaking of the round baler I went on a vacation to Ireland last year, and that is the only place that makes round silage balers. They have a McHale factory that we saw. In Ireland it is humid and it rains a lot so you can't dry hay well. So they use a round baler that wraps hay in plastic so the hay doesn't catch on fire. Hay can catch fire if it's too wet when you bale it. We saw a lot of round bales in Ireland. But their bales aren't wrapped in white, they use black plastic. We went there around Halloween and we saw them dress up their black silage bales as spiders. In the U.S., it's fun to see the round bales in the field because they are wrapped in white and look like giant marshmallows. When I grow up I want to be a farmer and own my own round silage baler. In the mean time, I will continue to bale and fluff, and dream about running the round baler.