Finally finished baling hay

[Mobuck]

After a good start followed by 3 weeks of on/off rain, I'm DONE(except for moving the bales). I'd been running the mower most of Wednesday and Son came to help finish Thursday. We baled his goat hay Saturday and he and Grandson showed up yesterday afternoon to help before Son had to get back to work. Made for a long day for me but acceptable to have that task finished. Everything went fairly well except I wasn't watching the indicator close enough and dumped a bale w/o net wrap. I thought it would be close but ran out with 4 bales left. Oh well, just a matter of toting the bale up the slope and letting it unroll itself to re-bale after loading a short roll of wrap I'd kept just for this purpose.

 

[Wvfarrier]

We put up several hundred 2 weeks ago. The heat is brutal

 

[nekvermont]

That's a big accomplishment.

 

[Mobuck]

I certainly feel it is an accomplishment as this is the 58th year I've baled the hay on this farm. Still using Dad's 1951 8N FORD that I used the first year plus another of Dad's tractors on the double rake.
New equipment is nice but the older stuff is 'comfortable'. One nice addition this year was a 'tailgate camera' for the baler. Saves a lot of neck twisting to make sure the dropped bale is clear of the closing tailgate.

 

[Pyromike]

Just out of HS, mom said go to (home inserted here) and they need help bailing hay. I 'threw' the bales up to the trailer; other kid had to stack and only a few hundred bales to get through the afternoon. This was going to be a 'strength building' opportunity and could lead to a full time job (in the 90 heat). The owners kids rode in the tractor and drank all our water. THEN back to the barn to stack it for the season. Oh, they did grill a hot dog for dinner.
Anytime I see hay it brings back nightmares. I love to see the full roll bales but think every kid needs to learn to throw the small bales. God Help Us needing hay.

 

[turd]

Did my share of throwing bales "many, many" years ago. Had 4 uncles that farmed not too far from the city I grew up in. Did my last stacking while in college for extra beer money. That is work.

 

[Shamus2022]

I use a 1953 Ford Golden Jubilee which is still going strong after 71 years..... altho I did have to buy new rear tires for it last year. I wouldn't part with it for mainly one reason... I CAN REPAIR and MAINTAIN IT! Like my '57 Jeep and '78 Lincoln NOTHING beeps, whistles, dings or otherwise yells at me and there is only one 'safety' item (can't push the starter button in gear); it does not otherwise 'argue' with me about anything. The jeep I can start in gear.

 

[krw]

One thing noone can argue against that has any knowledge whatsoever is, these new balers will flat out eat hay. If you have the hay an can afford the HP, and the baler you can bale 4x5 bale weighing 750-800lbs with net at a rate of bale/minute. And that is rollin Hay!!!

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Did my share of throwing bales "many, many" years ago. Had 4 uncles that farmed not too far from the city I grew up in. Did my last stacking while in college for extra beer money. That is work.

Yep, I think every teen age boy needs to spend a few days in July stacking ALFALFA bales on the wagon behind the bailer. I was 16 YO and 125 LBS stacking 100# bales as the hired kid.
It ranks right along with being inside the Silo leveling and closing the doors as the Silage is coming in. The good thing was that filling the silo and baling paid 75 cents rather than the 50 cents an hour that I got for working in the fields

 

[41Dude]

You are giving me nightmares. Helped stack hay years ago for one miserable summer.
On the plus side by the end of summer I was STRONG. And I had NO trouble falling asleep lol.

 

[nekvermont]

Nothing like sweating your butt off while stacking square bales in a hot barn loft to give you a world class itchy rash.

 

[wproct]

I grew up on a farm and cutting hay and baling was a summer long work effort. This was in the late 50's and early 60's. Our equipment was an 8N Ford tractor to mow and rake hay with a nice Ferguson rake. Baling was with a WD Allis Chalmers tractor and an Allis Chalmers small round baler. At that time it was just my Dad and me and he loved the round bales as once baled they could sit on the ground for some time and wasn't gonna be a problem. Being a young guy all I could think of was getting done so I could go to town and do whatever, I hated putting up hay at that time. I left home after graduating from high school and went on to spend my working years at other employment. We now live on an acreage and have farm ground surrounding us and I get a lot of enjoyment in watching the hay and crop work around us and I just chuckle as to the difference in manual labor required to put up hay now days.

 

[wproct]

I use a 1953 Ford Golden Jubilee which is still going strong after 71 years..... altho I did have to buy new rear tires for it last year. I wouldn't part with it for mainly one reason... I CAN REPAIR and MAINTAIN IT! Like my '57 Jeep and '78 Lincoln NOTHING beeps, whistles, dings or otherwise yells at me and there is only one 'safety' item (can't push the starter button in gear); it does not otherwise 'argue' with me about anything. The jeep I can start in gear.

I remember that tractor quite well. My first cousin bought a new one back then. We had an 8N.

 

[twerpymoon]

Back in the early 70's I came home all sweaty and covered with alfalfa leaves. My old man was sitting in his recliner watching Hee-Haw, munching on popcorn and washing it down with a plain white can of "Beer."
He looked at me and I commenced to whine about how old Harry Slawnyk only paid fifty cents an hour and his bales weighed twenty pounds more than everbody else, and pooched my lower lip out.
He took a swig, put on a long face, and said, "Well what do you know. When I was your age I only got fifty cents too. FOR THE WHOLE DAMN DAY! Now, shut up and go take a shower."

 

[Jeepnik]

When I was little the dairy would have bales stack very, very high. Hey I said I was little.

Dad hated heights. So when it was time to get it from the top I’d climb up and shove them off. No idea what they weighed but it was quite a workout for a little guy.

 

[Gator89]

Growing up in FL, we did not get started baling before the middle of July. We were busy growing watermelons until late June. Then the melon fields had to be plowed under and grain sorghum (milo) planted.

We had some Alicia Bermuda hay fields we would cut 4x, even 5x per year if we had good rain in September. I have baled hay as late as October.

We frequently seeded alice clover with the grain sorghum. The clover would grow among the sorghum and seed out. Then the following year we cut the clover for hay, then replant the field in Bahia grass.

 

[kentucky yeti]

We have been cutting hay again for the past 3 days. Lots of hay on the ground. Baling it today (all will be 5x5 round bales- no square bales this time). This is our second cutting on the fields this year. All the rains we have had has made this a good year for our hayfields.

 

[tazbigdog]

I remember helping farmers with their hay bales. One time was upstate New York, and we wanted to hunt the farmer’s property, so, we lifted the bales and threw them in the back of the truck/trailer, and then unloaded them and lifted them into the barn. We did a couple of hundred over two days.

The second time was in the White Mountains of NH. The reason was we wanted to help the host of whole property we were staying at.

Damn, this brought back many memories. The smell of fresh cut hay, the weight of the bales, my back and shoulders aching after baling.

Thanks for mentioning this. It was a simpler time back then.

 

[Mobuck]

"The owners kids rode in the tractor and drank all our water."
Funny that came up. Mom wouldn't drink from the same water jug as 'the help'. In addition, if she thought the paid hay handlers were wasting too much time or drinking too much, she'd put their water jug on the tractor step and they had to ASK for a drink. Far different than the current attitude where every one seems to have a 'sippy cup' and swilling water even when not working. Grandson has a terrible 'water habit'. Every time it looks like there may be more effort required than he's willing to apply, he goes for his sippy cup.
I think this comes from playing games. Baseball may be one of the worst. Kids spend 5-10 minutes out in the field and then go sit in the shade for 5-10 swilling water. Staying hydrated(the theme song for those who don't really want to work)may be important but it doesn't mean a constant infusion.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Speaking of water. I don't remember even drinking much water while working as a kid. I know I didn't have water on the tractor while working in the fields. When we bailed, we had two wagons to load then take them to the barn and the owner's kid and I would stack them in the barn. The owner would load the bails on the elevator which took them to the hay mow. I'm sure we drank water when we got back to the barn/house from the well water hose.
We didn't even know what hydrated meant let alone know how to spell it.

The Farmer I worked for was well known in the area since his farm had a covered bridge on it. His son and I, who was my age and a friend, fished the creek a lot. I also fished it with my Dad.
I stuck the John Deere B a couple of times in that creek bottoms field which didn't make the Boss to happy.
I spent a lot of good times in those fields in the background.

 

[Mobuck]

Update: I finished moving the last of the scattered bales off the fields yesterday. I HATE leaving bales sit in the field causing dead spots in the grass. Downside is-- the two buyers who told me they wanted to buy 2024 hay after buying last year have waffled and aren't answering calls/texts. Guess their word isn't worth as much as I thought.

 

[blume357]

every time I read the title of this post I fall back on a book I read years ago by Larry McMurtry about Pretty Boy Floyd and how him and his crew were always looking to get their "corn shucked." Sorry, I'm just in one of those moods...