Huge haystacks in the 1950's

[oldballs]

stuckmotor, Very interesting......thanks for posting it.

Mike

 

[stuckmotor]

I'm glad you guys enjoyed the video. About the most excitement we had on the farm growing up was when a crew would come to bale hay and put it in the barn.

 

[Egon]

Just think of all the men put out of work when the modern hay baler came out.

The work load increased with the small bales. Only when the bales were too large/heavy to handle by hand did the work required ease up.

Easiest is/was farmhand - stack mover - movable feeding gate for the Stacks.

Or

 

[deserteagle71]

Great video! The Ninety-six Ranch where that was filmed is just north of me in Paradise Valley. Still going strong today.

 

[BRMyers]

Enjoyed the video

 

[John Skull]

Stack Boss... heck of a job

Needle in a haystack... now I can appreciate that saying a little more

Great great video!

 

[mred2]

Yes, great video. Not old enough for the stacks, but have put up my share of square bales. All for friends and no money. We used to help each other.

 

[circled]

Amazing to me, thank you for posting! Maybe a goofy question, but how do they go about pulling hay from the stack for use?

 

[stuckmotor]

Amazing to me, thank you for posting! Maybe a goofy question, but how do they go about pulling hay from the stack for use?

It's a perfectly sensible question. The link below should take you to an explanation of the old way. Be sure to click the (continue reading) button that lets you read the rest of the article and see the hay knives.
Feeding Loose Hay from an Outside Haystack

One other time when we talked about this, someone explained feeding the loose hay with a loader. If I find the posts, I'll put up a link.

Egon has a hay slide as as his avatar and I think used to build the big stacks. If he comes in he'll probably answer your question before I find the thread.

 

[ovrszd]

The longevity of the hay quality in loose stacks varied a lot by geographic area. In Western country where the video was shot it survived very well. Here in the Midwest our humidity is pretty high with a lot more rain days. The loose stacks had to be fed the first year. A lot more hay barns were used here. Even as things evolved to baled hay it was still better to store in a barn.

Growing up we hired out to the neighbors to bale their hay and stack it. The landowner would mow it and rake it. I was the youngest on the hay crew. I started driving the baler tractor when I was 8 years old. One Summer we baled and stacked 10,000 square bales for hire plus our own to feed our livestock.

In this pic I'm 10 years old. Summer of '60. That's my Dad on the wagon. 1959 Ford 641 that we bought new. Pulling an Oliver 60T baler that we bought new. We were a well organized crew. Mid afternoon sometimes I'd get very sleepy running the tractor. Dad would flag me to stop. Have me shut the tractor off and sit in the shade leaning against the rear tire and take a nap. He smoked then and rolled his own. He'd have a cigarette and let me sleep a few minutes then we'd get back to work.

Good times. Hard, hot, dirty work. I never noticed. Knew nothing different. People would sometimes question Dad about having me running the tractor that young. After they'd watch me run it a day they had nothing but praise. My Dad taught me well.