It’s no secret that hydraulics are all around us. This Thanksgiving, consider reflecting on how fluid power has helped bring your Thanksgiving dinner from the farm, through production and transportation, to your table.
Starting with a classic side dish: cranberry sauce. It’s estimated that one-fifth of all U.S. cranberry consumption happens on Thanksgiving. Tractors fitted with metal tines separate the berries from their vines before they are piped into a dump truck, transported, hosed off and dumped onto conveyor belts. What do all of these pieces of equipment have in common? You guessed it—hydraulic fittings.
It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without the star of the show: turkey. According to the National Turkey Federation, the United States consumed 5.1 billion pounds of turkey in 2021—that’s more than 15 pounds per capita!
While the turkeys are on the farm, their food and water consumption is crucial for growth. Hydraulic components are used in automated feeders and drinking systems to help regulate intake.
A hydraulic lift is used to load the turkeys into their transportation truck or trailer before they are sent to their final destination.
Pumpkins are a staple of many Thanksgiving desserts, including the classic pumpkin pie. However, many adults (21 and over) like to get their pumpkin spice fix from another treat: pumpkin beer.
Hydraulic components are integral to the equipment breweries need to produce (and bottle) their beverages, from valves in the drying and roasting process to the mash tun and lauter tun. The mash tun combines the milled malt with water, while the lauter tun filters the resulting sugar/water liquid, called wort, from the spent grain.
The spent grain is rinsed with heated water, while the wort is boiled and sterilized in a kettle. After fermentation, it is kegged or bottled and carbonated—all thanks to hydraulics! We’ll drink to that.
This year, we want to thank the hard workers in the manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, food and beverage industries for getting our Thanksgiving dinner on the table.
To learn more about the importance of manifolds in your heavy hydraulic equipment, read our BluPrint!
Sources:
National Turkey Federation
Poultry Service Association
Tampa Bay Times
The Beer Connoisseur
