Stook

A stook /stʊk/, also referred to as a shock or stack,[1] is an arrangement of sheaves of cut grain-stalks placed so as to keep the grain-heads off the ground while still in the field and before collection for threshing.

For example, in the era when traditional hay-making was common, raked-up piles of hay were also called stooks, shocks, or ricks.

In North America, a stook may also refer to a field stack of six, ten or fifteen small (70–90 lb (30–40 kg)), rectangular bales of hay or straw.

An automatic bale stooker was eventually designed to eliminate the need for a person to manually stack and trip the stook-release.

Before mechanical harvesting became the norm, a common agricultural practice was to manually cut sheaves of grain, tie them in bundles, and stack them against one another vertically to form a "shock" so that they could air dry.