Throughout the summer, farmers use balers to gather alfalfa, clovers, and grasses and compact them  into square or round bales. Square bales weigh about 20 kg and round bales weigh between 250 kg and 500 kg. Some square balers have bale throwers at the back to throw the bales into wagons. Bales are then stored in a barn, shed or covered stacks and fed to livestock over the winter months. Round bales are moved by a front end loader on a tractor. They may be sealed in plastic for protection from the weather.

Combine

Harvesting takes place in summer and the fall. A combine harvests crops such as grain, corn, or rice.  With the entire plant is cut the ground and taken through the combine; the kernels are separated from the plant stalks. The kernels are stored in a large tank while the stalks go out the back of the  combine onto the ground. This is called straw. When harvesting corn, the combine pulls the cob from the plant, separates the kernels from the central cob, stores the kernels in the tank and deposits the waste cob out of the machine.

Grain Auger

A grain auger is used to raise grain from the ground to the top of grain bins at the farm or to load trucks from a grain bin. It is a long tube mounted on one set of wheels. Inside the tube is a metal auger, a tool having a long shank, shaped like a screw, that is driven by a pulley or gear at the top. As the shank turns, feed or other materials are displaced upwards. Augers are also used to distribute feed from the wagons to the cattle feed mangers on the farm.