A Farm Toolbox: The Pitchfork

Often the weapon of choice by angry peasants and fathers chasing away a daughter’s suitor, the pitchfork is part of our collective farm image. Picture Grant Wood’s American Gothic and you know the tool we speak of today. With a pitchfork in hand work will happen. And if you have chosen the right fork the work will happen more efficiently.

The pitchfork typically ranges from three-five prongs, with many exceptions. We have four pitchforks: one each for hay, manure, compost and a useless horse-stall fork.

Lounging by the coop.

Lounging by the coop.

The hay-fork: a slender three prong fork with tines spaced a couple of inches apart. This is for moving loose dry hay. Amazing how much hay can be lifted and tossed with this fork. One of my favorites, I use it frequently in the barn. We keep a round bale of hay in one of the stalls. Once or twice a week, using the fork, I tear hay from the bale and spread it around the barn for fresh bedding.

The manure-fork: Each spring we clean out a years’ worth of bedding and manure. It is layered in the barn to a depth of about twelve inches. What the front-end loader cannot get, the four prong manure-fork gets the rest. Not elegant, like the hay-fork, but it gets the job done. The extra tines give it more surface area for lifting bedding and manure.

The compost-fork: very similar to the manure-fork but it has five tines. The design allows you to shovel into a compost pile with ease and turn it with minimal effort. Just remember to lift with the knees. The more tines on the pitchfork, the greater the load; and the greater the load the more risk to ones back.

The stall-fork: designed for hoity-toity horse barns with paved surfaces, it has a dozen plastic tines and is near useless for real work. We bought it our first week on the farm. It leads a lonely life in the back of the tool shed.

Auctions and antique stores usually have well-made pitchforks for bargain prices. Pick one up, use it on your farm. Or save it for the next suitor or politician who knocks on your door.

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Rereading this weekend: Travels With a Donkey, by Robert Louis Stevenson. One of the greatest travel works of all time.

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3 thoughts on “A Farm Toolbox: The Pitchfork

  1. What, no potato fork?? Are you a communist? Sorry, a hyperbolic kneejerk…

    Love the suggestion to look for a good fork at an auction or antique shop. One is more likely to find a well made specimen and a good value. I once had a pair of pitch forks… had the one I bought at a hardware store when we bought the present homestead. Picked up the other at an auction – no one else wanted it and I got it for a buck. Still have the auction fork, but a few years ago I broke a tine off the ‘new’ model. Now if I just had the sense (fortitude?) to use the fork more than just a few times a year.

    • Potato fork? I’ll have to look for one! I don’t have a broad fork either. I do have one of those short handled cultivator forks. But it is seldom used.
      We just had a hair-raising experience. Just hitched Ginger to a wagon for the first time. I was leading her around with by her bridle. The shafts must have pinched her. Our normally placid draft took off at full speed, leapt two woven wire fences topped with barbed wire with eight foot cart in tow. She finally came to a rest in the lower hay field. Fortunately we were not on board and she did herself no serious injury. However the sheep enjoyed a brief outing in the lower field before all, and horse, were returned to the barn.
      BTW Glad to hear from you now that Chris is on sabbatical.

      • Ouch! Glad to hear she’s ok. That could have been disastrous. I imagine a hoof getting caught in woven wire fence and hauling her down onto barbed wire and all sorts of other ugly possibilities. She’s apparently in pretty good shape if she can with cart in tow clear a fence (twice!).

        One of our crew members has a mare that tore open her shoulder on a fence. I don’t recall the details – it involved two other horses in the pasture and a little social instability among them. The ‘event’ happened during the work day, and Jess’ Mother sent a text pic of the damage. With tears in her eyes Jess asked if she could take off to go home while the Vet was there. Seeing the pic I was nearly moved enough to want to go along. But the mare is fine now. Pretty tough critters!

        Oh – and thanks… am glad to be here. Missing Chris’ thoughts, but am glad he’s busy.

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