Pitchfork
Videos
Page
A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials.
Pitching hay
A pitchfork with five tines next to a compost bin. In this configuration, the pitchfork resembles a garden fork.
American Gothic, by Grant Wood, 1930
Propaganda work by James Gillray (1803) showing British icon John Bull holding the head of Napoleon Bonaparte on a pitchfork after a conjectured French invasion of Great Britain
Hay
Videos
Page
Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticated animals such as rabbits and guinea pigs. Pigs can eat hay, but do not digest it as efficiently as herbivores do.
Baled cornstalks
Good quality hay is green, not too coarse, and includes plant heads, leaves, as well as stems.
Poor-quality hay is dry, bleached out and coarse-stemmed. Sometimes, hay stored outdoors will look like this on the outside but still be green inside the bale. A dried, bleached or coarse bale is still edible and provides some nutritional value as long as it is dry and not moldy, dusty, or rotting.
Horses eating hay