Flying hay cratches

[badger nadgers]

Do hay cratches get airborne? Not just the lid ripping off, but the whole kaboodle lifted in the air? It is exposed up there (top of Staffs moorlands), think it was gusting to 75 mph according to weather station down in town, but they're low, without sides and quite heavy even unfilled.

One of my old 8ft hay cratches seems to have moved fields after the wind but there's a 4ft tall drystone wall that is undamaged and running across between where it left and where it is now, so I assume it's gone over the top of it. Gateways between the fields are a long way away and would have required the wind to go through at least 270 degrees, no sign of tyre tracks etc. About 70 ft to the wall then a similar distance on the other side and half way down a hill with damaged top and most of the wheels missing (and their remains were found going towards the wall)

Sheep haven't blown away but were a bit flightly, which if they've been sheltering on the lee side of the wall when the cratch came over is a little understandable. Impressive for the wall too, even if the cratch has been on end and see-sawed over.

 

[Cooper3075]

Wondered how my sheep got over that fence now it makes sence they blew over

 

[Sharpy]

We have an IAE. creep feeder that has done the same 3 times.

 

[Grassman]

What's a hay cratch?

 

[Lazy Sod]

When members insist on using colloquialisms, most of us don't what they are talking about.

 

[David.]

Well i'll hazard a guess at a hayrack on wheels. Usually lid blows open like a sail and they tip over on their side.
I have also heard that all our little birds get blown to Milton Keynes when it is really rough, and they have to follow the pigeons to find their way back home.

 

[badger nadgers]

Wondered how my sheep got over that fence now it makes sence they blew over

I was half expecting my little b*ggers to have pushed it round.

 

[Forever Fendt]

Do hay cratches get airborne? Not just the lid ripping off, but the whole kaboodle lifted in the air? It is exposed up there (top of Staffs moorlands), think it was gusting to 75 mph according to weather station down in town, but they're low, without sides and quite heavy even unfilled.

One of my old 8ft hay cratches seems to have moved fields after the wind but there's a 4ft tall drystone wall that is undamaged and running across between where it left and where it is now, so I assume it's gone over the top of it. Gateways between the fields are a long way away and would have required the wind to go through at least 270 degrees, no sign of tyre tracks etc. About 70 ft to the wall then a similar distance on the other side and half way down a hill with damaged top and most of the wheels missing (and their remains were found going towards the wall)

Sheep haven't blown away but were a bit flightly, which if they've been sheltering on the lee side of the wall when the cratch came over is a little understandable. Impressive for the wall too, even if the cratch has been on end and see-sawed over.

soon as i started reading,i thought it would be Staffs as you are calling it a "cratch"

 

[Philip Watkins]

soon as i started reading,i thought it would be Staffs as you are calling it a "cratch"

That's what they're called round these parts as well.

 

[slackjawedyokel]

Is this the sort of thing you mean?

 

[Great In Grass]

Is this the sort of thing you mean?

Picture of one of these on Twitter yesterday being blown over in the wind with a dead ewe trapped underneath.

 

[Paddington]

I double lock all my cratch lids, a bit of baler twine round the locking ring or R clips through the over catches and place the cratches in line with the westerly prevailing winds round here. Trouble is when you get a northerly or southerly gale.

 

[badger nadgers]

Is this the sort of thing you mean?

Yep