baling hay

[Mobuck]

Started the hay baler today for the 53rd year on the farm where I live now. That's a LONG time. It's getting tougher every year but Son helped last year and is helping again. I can get along OK in the air conditioned tractor cab but the afternoon sun makes it hard w/o that. Looks like a good crop even though only 20% complete--still plenty of time for the train to derail.
Juggling time is the key. We're hitting the time frame to spray soybeans again and several other projects that require hands on attention.

 

[Ale-8(1)]

Ah . . . makin' hay. Worked one whole summer as a kid on a custom baling crew. If it wasn't raining, we were haying. Riding the wagon at the end of the baler ramp/chute, stacking them four or five high (with tie), working the barn mow with the wasps at 115 degrees, yeah, fun. We even stacked most of a small cutting in a big silo. That was interesting. Once we baled along a creek, where every other bale had a snake sticking out of it, usually alive.

And I learned that when you're driving a little Ford tractor pulling two loaded wagons you don't want the whole outfit to get away from you on a downhill. Several exciting moments, for sure.

Dollar an hour . . . character building. :wink:

 

[vortecMax]

My mother kept me out of trouble most summers, by dropping me off at her brothers farm. Haying, milking, and other chores.

 

[Goldstar225]

Earned my summer money as a kid hauling hay and working in the tomato fields. Tossing those bales into the bed of a pickup truck will toughen the muscles for sure.

 

[bogus bill]

Did a little of it 65 years ago. You can have my part.

 

[powder smoke]

Being a kid in the late fifties and early sixties meant a buss ride to Colby's each morning
during summer vacation! Weeding and picking veggies in large gardens. Getting paid very little. Guess it keep us out of trouble. Maid a few dollars a week, was only half days at noon we were done! ps

 

[Mobuck]

Big changes since the 60's in hay harvesting. I put in my time bucking bales and the damage to my shoulder, knees, and back attests to that. In the mid-70's we reached a level of production that demanded a change. No longer could we make a couple of phone calls and have 3-4 high school boys to stack bales. We were baling 50,000+ per summer and just couldn't handle the job. At that time, we shifted to a large round baler for the majority of the hay and I haven't baled any small bales since 1988.
The current crop of balers is a far cry from the old AC "Roto-Baler" and the capacity is unbelievable until you've seen one in action. I don't have the finances or the need for a $50K baler so I'm using a much less expensive and simpler 1985 model.

 

[smoke-eater]

When I was a kid, we had a neighbor who owned a small herd of Santa Gertrudis cattle. When rain was in the forecast, he'd give my dad a call and we'd help him bale hay and get it out of the field before the weather turned bad. Never had to buy hay or straw for our ponies. But, boy did it cause my hay fever to go into high gear. By time we'd finish, my eyes would be swollen shut!

 

[contender]

I was a teen & worked once loading hay as it was baled. My Dad's works rang true; "Work smarter,, not harder" and so I found better employment.

 

[bogus bill]

I was raised in central Wisconsin. I still recall one of my hardest days work. It was so hot and muggy you couldn't breath. Stacking the bales in the hay mow of the barn was as miserable as it gets. Then I worked in a foundry. Hot and muggy to start with and then pouring castings and putting them in furnaces made me wish I had went to night school! It was my first good paying job. You could only see the whites of your eyes and would be farting soot and blowing licorice. That was about 1958. I worked 8pm to 4am. Everyone had picture windows and on my way to hell I would see people just sitting down to watch TV and picking their teeth after supper.

 

[Rancher Will]

This brings back memories. We now use a JD 569 net wrap baler on each of our ranches. It's great change from when I started in 1954 on the rented farm in Iowa with a wire, block and tie baler, to the New Holland small tie wire baler on my first Colorado ranch, the New Holland small twine tie baler, then my first JD round twine tie balers, to our two balers today.

 

[blume357]

Never did that... spent my summers in a peach packing shed.... four of them loading the big 18 wheelers.... usually about 50-60 tons a day .... 3/4 bushel boxes ..... 12-16 hours...

 

[any ruger]

I was out chopping cotton and my brother was baling hay. Ioved that song and I'm a Yankee.

 

[InjunBro]

When I was 7 Grandpa put me on a tractor pulling a hay wagon, I was short enough I had to get down on the running board to reach the clutch then climb up in the seat. When I was 13 I "graduated" to loading the wagons & stacking bales in the haymow... haying is one of several reasons I left the farm the day after I graduated from high school & got a nice, easy job as a cat skinner where I only had to work 12 hour days.

 

[Ray Newman]

My paternal grandfather baled; maternal grandfather put hay in loose! Spent time on a Deere horse drawn mower and Deere dump rake. Back at the barn, my job was walking the team pulling the hay into the mow, then turning them back for another lift. Seems that the team's double tree weighed way more than I did. Hot dusty work, and the hay seeds and dust would form a dried mud-like coating on skin. Ninety five degree weather, 90% humidity before noon.

 

[Mobuck]

Rancher Will, those 569's are the top of the line in the MidWest. They can roll up an amazing amount of hay and do a good job.
My Cousin bought a new 569 in 2018 and if he didn't live so far away (60 miles), I'd let him bale my hay. The young guy who rents the grass and hay on our north farm has a 569 and has offered to bale my hay. I just haven't been able to "let go" of the process I've involved with for so long. Fifty years was a milestone but of course, then I had to raise the bar to 55 years.
Yesterday was a productive day. I spent 1/2 the day in the hay field and 1/2 day helping load the sprayer. Son got most of the soybeans on this place sprayed. Today I'll roll up the remainder of the hay he mowed first of the week and he'll finish spraying here. That puts us in an OK spot before the rain starts Friday.

 

[Ruger Packer]

Back in the mid-60's to mid-70's I hauled hay for my granddad and my uncle. My uncle put up 20 times more hay than granddad because he had a dairy and milked 100 cows twice a day (today same uncle's sons milk 325 cows twice a day).... anyway, my cousins were always jealous because their daddy paid me a nickel a bale and didn't pay them anything. Their daddy told them that he paid them in room and board!! LOL Anyway, bucking hay in NE Okla and NW Ark in the summer was some hot, muggy and dirty work. After we were done we'd go down to the local swimming hole.... a creek with clear cold water... strip all our clothes off and skinny dip. I'd jump into the pickup afterwards and drive the 5 miles to our house buck naked. Jump out of the truck and run into the house stark naked my mom hollerin' at me to put my britches on!!! Dad just laughed. Those were some good times. Bucking bales toughened me up for football season. But today... I don't miss it one little bit!!!!

 

[Colonialgirl]

Back in the mid-60's to mid-70's I hauled hay for my granddad and my uncle. My uncle put up 20 times more hay than granddad because he had a dairy and milked 100 cows twice a day (today same uncle's sons milk 325 cows twice a day).... anyway, my cousins were always jealous because their daddy paid me a nickel a bale and didn't pay them anything. Their daddy told them that he paid them in room and board!! LOL Anyway, bucking hay in NE Okla and NW Ark in the summer was some hot, muggy and dirty work. After we were done we'd go down to the local swimming hole.... a creek with clear cold water... strip all our clothes off and skinny dip. I'd jump into the pickup afterwards and drive the 5 miles to our house buck naked. Jump out of the truck and run into the house stark naked my mom hollerin' at me to put my britches on!!! Dad just laughed. Those were some good times. Bucking bales toughened me up for football season. But today... I don't miss it one little bit!!!!

Should've stole a couple of water melons to float in the creek while you were swimming; Eat the heart and leave the seedy parts. Learned that from visiting my cousins in Oklahoma (we didn't skinny dip).

 

[Big Old Boy]

As young men we did the same thing to the pond after the cows were milked and the hay done for the day. I always felt better getting in the shower without the hay chaff left that in the pond.

 

[Colonialgirl]

Bailing Hay;
One summer we were visiting our Grandma up in Pennsylvania (Bloomindale*; good luck finding it on a map); any way, my Dad's cousin just down the road was mowing and bailing hay; So we offered to help; My Brother got to stack bales on the wagon and I GOT TO DRIVE THE TRACTOR because I was smaller !

* Bloomingdale: One general store that sold everything, one gas pump, a small furniture store (?) a one room school house (grades 1-8), a Grange Hall and three or four churches nearby; It's up over the hills from Shickshinny , PA.

 

[Mobuck]

And now the downside. Son had been running the mower and mentioned it was making a different sound. We checked the gear box and found it was low which was strange. Added oil and he went back to cutting. Soon he was back and this time we pulled the drain plug to find ground metal shavings there. Drained and refilled to finish then later found the real problem. A bearing had been slowly disintegrating until finally it just came apart. Two gears, a shaft, 4 bearings, 4 seals, and a bearing holder/gear case cover is going to cost around $800.
I ordered parts from the factory in Pella, Ia yesterday for expected delivery to the local dealer Monday. The mechanic said he'd never seen one do that and I replied that I'd not owned one before so he should expect to see several issues crop up that no one else had ever seen. At this point, I have more experience with disassembling one of these mowers than the dealership.
Darned thing is assembled like a bunch of "Lincoln Logs" with one part retaining another retaining another so if one piece fails, everything behind it goes, too.

 

[kramden]

Ah yes ,the days when I was young. A hot, itchy job. But glad I had to learn to do alot of that stuff. Great life lessons in learning to work. Want something??? Fine get out there and earn it. Wouldn't trade that education for any masters degree.

 

[Mobuck]

It looks like the July 4 rains have started 2 weeks early. We had 3.3" last night and predictions of almost daily rains for the next 2 weeks. Hay harvest is normally a 2-3 week job so with the daily rains and accompanying wet ground, that will become 5-6 weeks.
Unfortunately, the mower breakdown has become more than just an expensive delay. Now, we're facing quality issues and significant loss due to wind damage. This can go from a bumper crop to a tangled, mess overnight.

 

[Mega Twin]

When I was a kid,we did custom baling.Our equipment was a 1951 chevy pick up that pulled the baler,and a John Deere model H that pulled a converted horse drawn rake.
The rake piled the hay up and the baler pulled up and my dad and a neighbor pitch forked the hay into the baler.
Oh,and the baler? Dad called it a peckerwood baler.It was powered by a big wisconsin engine.My older brother would poke the baling wire through the wooden block and I would poke it back through to him where he would tie it off.
There was a painted line on the baler and when the block got to it I would yell BLOCKER!! And they would quit pitching hay while I pushed a carrier up that the plunger would hit and start the process again.
I was too small to haul hay,so I got the job of driving the hay truck which was a 1951 dodge one and a half ton.Not being able to reach the pedals,one of the guys would start the truck,put it in 1st gear and jump out while I guided it between the rows.
My dad charged the land owners 25 cents a bale that included cutting,raking,baling,and stacking it in the barn.I got a half cent a bale

 

[Mobuck]

"My older brother would poke the baling wire through the wooden block and I would poke it back through to him where he would tie it off."
Dad lost the end of his index finger doing that job when he was a kid.

 

[bogus bill]

Must have been no welfare back then.

 

[Mobuck]

Certainly little tolerance for laziness.

 

[Mega Twin]

I was at an antique engine show with my dad several years back,and they had one of those old balers running a demo.
I guess at the time they were made it was a lot better than hauling wagon loads of loose hay,but when we got our new to us New Holland pick up baler,my brother and I felt like we finally hit the big time!!

 

[Mobuck]

We had one of the first New Holland Model 56 "Rolo-bar" rakes in the area. Delivered in a crate and I helped put it together. Pulled that thing a bajillion miles. Dad bought a new rake and square baler (both NH)that year and we baled a lot of square bales until Brother was drafted. Then we added an Allis Chalmers round baler and a new Ford tractor to pull it in 1967. IIRC, in '67 I had approx 30,000 round bales of grass hay waiting to be picked up by mid July besides the 6000-8000 of alfalfa that we baled in square bales and had already put in the barn.. All of that (except the alfalfa bales) working alone--mowing, raking, and baling besides 60 acres of corn to cutivate twice. Seven days a week from can see to can't see, there weren't many days off for darned sure.

 

[Ruger Packer]

We had one of the first New Holland Model 56 "Rolo-bar" rakes in the area. Delivered in a crate and I helped put it together. Pulled that thing a bajillion miles. Dad bought a new rake and square baler (both NH)that year and we baled a lot of square bales until Brother was drafted. Then we added an Allis Chalmers round baler and a new Ford tractor to pull it in 1967. IIRC, in '67 I had approx 30,000 round bales of grass hay waiting to be picked up by mid July besides the 6000-8000 of alfalfa that we baled in square bales and had already put in the barn.. All of that (except the alfalfa bales) working alone--mowing, raking, and baling besides 60 acres of corn to cutivate twice. Seven days a week from can see to can't see, there weren't many days off for darned sure.

Mobuck, Grandparents had a neighbor that put up as many round bales as square. Granddad always put up square. Just curious..... does one have any advantage over the other? Pros/cons.