WATCH: These Hay Bail Contests Should Be Olympic Events
Today most hay is not bailed but rolled up into what looks like big toilet paper rolls, or maybe giant marshmallows. I'm not sure.
This is very efficient to get the job done, but it takes all the fun out of it.
There was a time when many young people got strong by bailing hay.
Then lifting, carrying, and tossing hay bails.
Leave it to country folks to make a competition out of it.
In the video below you'll people cheering at the local hay bail toss.
This should be an Olympic sport.
OH, SURE you can run at the bar with a pole and vault over it.
But how high can you toss a 50lb bail of hay over it?
Okay, so that's the high toss.
But what about the distance competition?
There are times you have to get the hay across the field or across the barn.
This means picking that sucker up and tossing it long, like an Olympic long jumper, but with hay.
Yeah, that's right, I still think this should be an Olympic sport. It's so practical.
Like with any event like this strength is only part of the strategy.
It's more about how the bail is tossed.
Having a lot of muscle helps but honestly momentum goes a long way (literally).
In these competitions, there are many different styles of tossing. May the best one win.
BUT HOLD ON!
What about how many a team can load in a given amount of time?
Yeah, that's a contest too.
In this competition there are several flatbed trucks and these guys try to load as many as they can before the clock runs out.
Back to those big rolls of hay. Not as much fun, as I said.
But that doesn't mean that people still don't have competition with them.
Let's get teams together and see how far and fast we can roll them.
Tossing hay happens all over planet Earth.
So who's with me on making these contests Olympic sports?