A few pics from today’s square baling

[alpacalips]

Send some of that hay to northeast WA, the drought has pushed grass hay to $400/ton here!

 

[Bearsixty7]

I thought square bailing was a thing of the past. Labor intensive and a great deal of storage needed, plus danger of burning barn to ground if hay is too green. Really good pictures though.

You are thinking of the smaller, 75-100 lb. bales that most people handled by hand. Usually a 3 man crew, driver, bucker and stacker, sometimes me and my brother alone would do it, put the pickup in Granny gear and let it crawl along and I'd reach in occasionally to steer it between the bales while we both bucked and stacked from each side. Once we got to the 4th row we'd stop and have to climb up to stack properly.

Those big square bales are used a lot for bales that are sold and trucked with a semi, they don't leave any unused or wasted space.

 

[51allis]

WOW, thank you for sharing the pics...Was raised a city boy then moved to the country after I married my wife. When you live in the country you learn to be self sufficient to a certain extent. As the years progressed, I had various jobs and never knew anything about farming, just surviving. it wasn't until about at age 45 we bought our 20A farm spread....this is when I got into old tractors and old hay equipment...because the newer stuff was just to expensive for what little I cut and couldnt justify the cost. My first tractor that I still use is a 1951 Allis Chalmers (we call her "Allie") and I wanted to try and use her for haying...so we got a sickle mower, then a old loose hay rake. Believe it or not....I thought it was the best thing ever as Allie had the hand clutch which I just love....we did loose hay for 2 years to feed 2 horses we had...it worked great but then got a small square baler and it changed. I can tell you, that to me, cutting hay in manageable sized field became something I looked forward to...it was a break from the hectic world around us, it always made me feel so peaceful...could shut off my brain and just focus on the task at hand....now at 50 I look back and how things used to be done on a farm and wished I could have learned long ago....No matter how old the equipment, as long as its in working condition, if you have a will you have a way....I think this is why our country is not the same any more...the loss of small farms has really taken a toll on society and its norms. But luckily there has been a resurgence as we see all the bullcrap going on. Thanks again for the pics and thank you for your service.

 

[sea2summit]

Send some of that hay to northeast WA, the drought has pushed grass hay to $400/ton here!

Send a freaking truck! 5-800# rounds here are $25-35 right now for cow hay because no one wants first cut, especially while all the pastures are green for grazing.

 

[Bearsixty7]

Raking hay that had been rained on in 1972:
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Chopping corn in 1969...my brother was riding shotgun on the chopper because a lot of the corn had been blown down in a storm and he had to clear the throat of the chopper whenever it plugged.

That looks like the same rake we had, a New Holland 256 IIRC. We also used an old H a few years but most of my raking was with a IH 464.
We would mow with 2 IH 464's and 7' sickle mowers (Dad and me, later me and my brother), Then when it was time, I would pull my mower off and rake (Except for the years we had the H for raking), then Grandad and later my brother would bale with an IH 574 and an IH 430 maybe then later a IH 435 or something like that.
Once raking was done, I'd put the mower back on and Dad and I would start the next field.
Various uncles and cousin's sometimes helped.

 

[RancherGuy]

I thought square bailing was a thing of the past. Labor intensive and a great deal of storage needed, plus danger of burning barn to ground if hay is too green. Really good pictures though.

Even the smaller 70# bales are now managed by equipment. The most common buyer around here are people with horses. The baler can be followed by an accumulator that organizes them into a single layer group of 8 to 12 bales and lays them on the ground, then that group can be picked up by tractor with FEL and hay grapple which lays over the group and picks them all up in unison, then places the group on a trailer/truck.

 

[RancherGuy]

Do you have to fertilize those fields once in a while?

Around here, Houston Texas, if you want higher quality over a period of time, fertilizing is essential. If conditions are right, I apply a moderate amount between cuttings. Richer green, denser and faster growing. If I neglect to fertilize, after 3 years the harvest gets skimpy and does not shade out weed competition. That's what I do because I hay land that I own. Few who lease land put in the money because if the lease is lost, someone else profits.

 

[RancherGuy]

Send some of that hay to northeast WA, the drought has pushed grass hay to $400/ton here!

WOW! And around here (Houston Texas), the first two counties off the Gulf have had so much rain over the past 3-4 months that nothing can get baled. We are now in the middle of August and I have not been able to get my first cutting.

But it is not always the first two rows of counties. My biggest customer last year calls now and then to talk. He has 1600 acres under lease and is located closer to San Antonio (100 miles inland) and spent lots of money on planting and fertilizing. Two weeks ago he said he cut 100 acres, but 4.5 inches of rain followed, flooding the field. Of the heavily-seeded Sorghum grass that he planted, being unable to cut, he says the grass is now 8 feet high.

With the lack of contract hay or spot market hay being cut, I have a strong feeling that there will be a severe lack of hay this winter around here. I really feel for people who have to face severe impacts of issues out of their control - producers and buyers.

 

[deserteagle71]

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Yep... memories for sure and where my love of tractors began... family dairy farm in the family for generations...

A wonderful experience spending summers with my Grandparents and cousins and a window into another way of life...

That tractor was part of the family and my Grandfather sold timber over several years to raise the money to buy and opted to go hand crank because the electric start was a costly upgrade...

Single Cylinder diesel with a glow plug lit with a match...

Still remember the sound of the motor as it started...

The drive belt was used a lot... moving hay with a blower, buzz saw, pumping the manure pit.. etc.

Love the photo!
At least the sickle bar mower was mounting on the side of the tractor. All the years I had to use one it was mounted on the rear; by the end of the day I would have a severe kink in my neck from constantly looking back at the mower. Had to keep watching it because the mower would become plugged - especially when mowing something like lush red clover. Had to get off the tractor countless times to pull a critter's nest off the knife guard to get that part of the sickle bar to mow again.

 

[deserteagle71]

We used a McCormick baler and I remember when I was a kid about 10, my dad taught me how to tie a square knot and I sat on the twine storage area as we baled. When a bale did not tie, I would tie the twine while we were moving. That baler had a knotter problem, but we still used it for about 30 years. The picture below was taken in 1954, pulled by an Oliver 77.

We had a McCormick also - and it had the same problem. I believe all the baling we did with that unit was done with a kid sitting on the twine box, checking each bale to make sure it was properly tied.

 

[ljjhouser]

Thanks you guys. What great pictures. I never farmed, but I had college roommates who were from farm families. Seem there was always one of the roommates kind enough to invite me to their home (farm). When it was time to put up hay. We called it "working for food." We worked, we got fed. Not a bad arrangement. Seems to be an new concept today. Terrific pictures. Thank You.

 

[lman]

Even the smaller 70# bales are now managed by equipment. The most common buyer around here are people with horses. The baler can be followed by an accumulator that organizes them into a single layer group of 8 to 12 bales and lays them on the ground, then that group can be picked up by tractor with FEL and hay grapple which lays over the group and picks them all up in unison, then places the group on a trailer/truck.

My hay is baled and collected that way, unfortunately my barn is not set up to be stacked with the grapple. You guessed it this old fart is still stacking hay in my barn. I've got 200 bales on my trailer waiting to be unloaded and stacked by hand.
Anybody want to buy some horses. My wife has a 37 year old horse and I think it's just about history.

 

[ljjhouser]

My hay is baled and collected that way, unfortunately my barn is not set up to be stacked with the grapple. You guessed it this old fart is still stacking hay in my barn. I've got 200 bales on my trailer waiting to be unloaded and stacked by hand.
Anybody want to buy some horses. My wife has a 37 year old horse and I think it's just about history.

There is a science involved in stacking hay bales. It has been my limited experience that a 70# bale actually weights 100# after lunch. So the science of stacking tells us it should be done in the morning, before lunch, not in the afternoon. Hope that helps! Best wishes, Larry

 

[lman]

There is a science involved in stacking hay bales. It has been my limited experience that a 70# bale actually weights 100# after lunch. So the science of stacking tells us it should be done in the morning, before lunch, not in the afternoon. Hope that helps! Best wishes, Larry

Oh, I guess it's too late today then. There's always tomorrow. I've got to work at a real job Wed.-Fri. so I can recover then.

 

[JWR]

I grew up on a Pennsylvania farm; haying every summer is still something I have fond memories of to this day. Probably would have farmed all my life if I hadn't been drafted and ended up in Vietnam. Here's a faded photograph from the early 50s...note the crank in the front of the Oliver. My dad on the Oliver and my cousin on the dump rake.
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Many a dump rake was converted to tractor pull configuration as the horses were phased out !! We did exactly as pictured here using a MH Pacer to pull with in the 1950's. I was riding the 10ft rake at age 10 when we ran over the biggest black snake I ever saw with both rake wheels... i.e. more than 10ft long ! I was perched up on top of the seat with both feet by that time. The good old days ! I still have the Pacer AND the crank handle if I can still find the handle...

 

[JWR]

It can get dicey when 2 tractors are passing nearby in fields (collision), connecting/disconnecting PTO shafts, hot/sharp metals, fall from baler, eye injuries, etc. I know a guy who fell off a square baler and broke his back. Plenty of families around here with dead sons or fathers.
Farming is incredibly dangerous career and sometimes I think I should quit.

I have lost several friends who died from a tractor rolling over on them while bush hogging -- Bob Mendez, Tommy Stout to name a couple. Another was crushed underneath a baler he had crawled under to work on. Another friend who was big in FFA in the 1950's (Worthy Hall) lost an arm reaching into what was then a new tech hay baler. They sewed his arm back on and he is using it today in his 80's. You better betcha farming is inherently hazzardous ! I won't quite say "dangerous" because if you stay alert and avoid doing stupid things you convert "hazardous" away from "dangerous" to "almost safe."

 

[ljjhouser]

Oh, I guess it's too late today then. There's always tomorrow. I've got to work at a real job Wed.-Fri. so I can recover then.

Ha Ha still laughing! Great! And, if the forecast is for rain in the next 3 days, You won't have to cover it because past experience has also shown us, that rain will not happen. You should have 2 weeks to wait for a good morning.

 

[JWR]

Post up more pics!
Here’s some feed hay in one of my many leaky, creaky condemned hay sheds. I swear by plastic pallets to reduce bottom spoilage.

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Here we are making some 4x4x8 big squares and some 4x5 round bales in the background


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Typical 1500 pound bales

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Setting up to bale another field

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I was just going to ask what those big square bales weigh ! I tossed a lot of hay bales as a teenager but not 1500lb ones ! Also I note the power lines cohabitate with your work. I just had 1/2 mile of 140 ft wide right of way put across the middle of my farm a few years back -- 138,000 volt lines on 100ft tall twin wooden braced together poles. In WV.


Hey thanks for doing this thread -- so many nostalgic pictures and reality to see sompared to the crazed world around us these days !!!
Enjoyed it.

 

[Budweiser John]

I do miss haying but in a way I don't must be age thing,

Let’s just say 30 years ago when hay season rolled around and small square bales were the norm the anticipation of a barn full of green sweet smelling hay was almost as good as making love ( note the term almost), we had an inventory of willing young Teenagers mostly striking for that first string football team And willing to flex their muscles in completion with one another to get the crop under cover and beat the rain.
Then it happened, the internet, Facebook, and helicopter parents. Finding hay labor took as much time as harvesting the crop. Those young bucks willing to sweat and grow a few blisters were usually on the hook for some type of court ordered Restiration or were in need of a few bucks to fuel their addiction to whatever was popular at the time.
I sold my hay equipment 20 years ago and bought hay on the open market for probably another 8 to 10 years before bowing out of livestock after nearly 45 years.
Golden memories…….

B. John

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Glad my kids got to experience it