Hay Baling Time In OK

[fossis]

With all the hot dry weather in this area, it makes for some 'great weather' to bale the hay.
It's much different than when I was young, we hauled & stacked the 'square bales' in the hot barns, complete with wasp nest's, & plenty of sweating, now they just use 'a stinger' on the tractor to move them around.

Fossis............

 

[Silver Searcher]

Nice shot

Our farmers had just started at the weekend....and guess what..it rained and still is now

SS

 

[fossis]

Nice shot

Our farmers had just started at the weekend....and guess what..it rained and still is now

SS

Thanks, it was like a 'bee-hive' around here for a while, they got a lot done, but showers today.

Fossis............

 

[naturegirl]

Square bales and hay monsters, all but gone. when we were first married and the oil market collasped in the early '80's, that's how my husband took care of his family, hauling hay one season. three men did the job of four and made more money. He came home wore out, but in very good shape. I guess round bales are better economically, such are the ways of progress. I love it when I see the occasional field of square bales, and I think about the people who will be hauling and stacking them.

 

[fossis]

Square bales and hay monsters, all but gone. when we were first married and the oil market collasped in the early '80's, that's how my husband took care of his family, hauling hay one season. three men did the job of four and made more money. He came home wore out, but in very good shape. I guess round bales are better economically, such are the ways of progress. I love it when I see the occasional field of square bales, and I think about the people who will be hauling and stacking them.

They are almost all gone, but a few hang on to them because they prefer the 'square bales'.
I can actually remember my folks baling with the 'antique balers', where you brought the hay to the baler with wooden teeth 'Bull rakes', after it was windrowed with 'sulky rakes', all horse drawn equiptment.
Being too small to do anything else, I rode the mule around in circles, as the men pitched the hay into the hopper with pitch forks, as the mule made a turn, it made another 'block of hay' in the bale, as two people on each side fed the wire through & tied it, each bale was seperated with wooden blocks.
I can remember my Grandfather piling hay around a pole stuck in the ground, that was a long time ago. :P
Here is a pic of a friend's family baling years ago, & one from a book with a boy bringing water to the hands.

fossis............

 

[naturegirl]

I love those pictures! I didn't know that was how they used to bale. so much work for such an important thing- make sure the livestock could eat. things change. And what caught my eye in the water-bearer picture was his shoes! They look homemade, but I bet he was glad to have them. And his expression. Thanks for those pics fossis I'll think of them when I see the endless fields of big round bales this summer.

 

[fossis]

I love those pictures! I didn't know that was how they used to bale. so much work for such an important thing- make sure the livestock could eat. things change. And what caught my eye in the water-bearer picture was his shoes! They look homemade, but I bet he was glad to have them. And his expression. Thanks for those pics fossis I'll think of them when I see the endless fields of big round bales this summer.

Thanks, we have several old 'sulky rakes' & mowing machines around the country in people's yards for decoration, & they make gates out of the old metal wheels, but the balers are slowly rusting away back in the bushes when you can find one.
The 'bull rakes' wooden poles are nearly all rotted away unless they are in a barn.
I remember my Grandfather had an 'old high back saddle' like the one on the boy's horse.

 

[Okie Hillbillies]

Hello, OkieHillBillie here you were talking about haulingnthe hay now they have a gatherer and a 16 hook
thing that picks up the hay and loads it on the trailer. the gatherer pulls behind the tractor down the row of hayand when it gets 8 bailes it dumps out the back then when you get it all done the hook thing
on a loader on the front of the tractor picks up the bales 8 at a time and will go 5 or 6 high on the
trailer, then another tractor at the barn unloads the same way and can stack 7 high doing away with
hay haulers.

 

[fossis]

Hello, OkieHillBillie here you were talking about haulingnthe hay now they have a gatherer and a 16 hook
thing that picks up the hay and loads it on the trailer. the gatherer pulls behind the tractor down the row of hayand when it gets 8 bailes it dumps out the back then when you get it all done the hook thing
on a loader on the front of the tractor picks up the bales 8 at a time and will go 5 or 6 high on the
trailer, then another tractor at the barn unloads the same way and can stack 7 high doing away with
hay haulers.

They have 'come a long way' since the old days, but my two sons got a taste of it when they were young.
(Foot note) Okie is the mechanic & parts runner for a local farmer in the 'Hay Season', last summer we detected a house place in the field where they had just baled, I started to question our 'sanity' in the 90's that day.

Fossis............

 

[Okie Hillbillies]

Hi, Fossis come over to the field and take a few pictures and let the folks see what I tried to describe.


Okie Hillbillies

 

[fossis]

Hi, Fossis come over to the field and take a few pictures and let the folks see what I tried to describe.


Okie Hillbillies

Okay, later on.

Fossis............

 

[diggemall]

I love it when I see the occasional field of square bales, and I think about the people who will be hauling and stacking them.

Thanks for thinking of me !

I have a neighbor put up some of my hay in small bales to feed my critters (he bales the rest as round bales for himself as "pay" for the few hundred small bales I keep)

Diggem'

 

[fossis]

It would take a 'good long time' for those little critters to eat a big round bale.

Fossis...........

 

[Mental Granny]

It would take awhile they are so little ! Thanks for this Carl, it brings back alot of memories! Going out an feeding droppin the bales off the back of a truck an runnin around in the field an putting them in the back of a truck an unloading them in the barn .... you forgot besides wasp nest the snakes ! Hehe ! Up here there is a field here an there that have square bales bales not many and it is amazing to still see a traier on the road stacked with them!

The horses are so cute how many do you have ?

 

[packerbacker]

I remember my son bucking hay some time back. The first day left home in the dark and came back after dark. He was wearing short sleeves and his Levis had blown out knees. When he came home the inside of his forearms and his knees were chaffed terribly from lifting and kneeing the bales. His mom felt sorry for him I just asked him how much he made. He got paid 10 cents per bale. The bale had to be thrown from the ground to the flatbed being hauled by the tractor. Then it had to be unloaded at the barn and stacked in the loft to make the 10 cents. He smiled when he told me he made 80 bucks that day.

 

[diggemall]

It would take awhile they are so little ! Thanks for this Carl, it brings back alot of memories! Going out an feeding droppin the bales off the back of a truck an runnin around in the field an putting them in the back of a truck an unloading them in the barn .... you forgot besides wasp nest the snakes ! Hehe ! Up here there is a field here an there that have square bales bales not many and it is amazing to still see a traier on the road stacked with them!

The horses are so cute how many do you have ?

Just the mini horse, Princess, and her offspring the mini mule PV (stands for what she is full of - P & Vinegar ) We lost Bethlehem, the donkey, this last winter.

And yes, together, the horse & mule eat about 1/2 bale / day, so it doesn't take much to feed 'em. A 900 # round bale would last them about a month.

Diggem'

 

[fossis]

It would take awhile they are so little ! Thanks for this Carl, it brings back alot of memories! Going out an feeding droppin the bales off the back of a truck an runnin around in the field an putting them in the back of a truck an unloading them in the barn .... you forgot besides wasp nest the snakes ! Hehe ! Up here there is a field here an there that have square bales bales not many and it is amazing to still see a traier on the road stacked with them!

The horses are so cute how many do you have ?

We would have to look for all kinds of 'critters' in the old barns, plus every now & then a snake would be baled up & still be alive, held by the string.

Fossis..........

 

[fossis]

I remember my son bucking hay some time back. The first day left home in the dark and came back after dark. He was wearing short sleeves and his Levis had blown out knees. When he came home the inside of his forearms and his knees were chaffed terribly from lifting and kneeing the bales. His mom felt sorry for him I just asked him how much he made. He got paid 10 cents per bale. The bale had to be thrown from the ground to the flatbed being hauled by the tractor. Then it had to be unloaded at the barn and stacked in the loft to make the 10 cents. He smiled when he told me he made 80 bucks that day.

It's a 'rough job', but you really get in good shape after a while. :P
I remember we got 3 cents a bale years ago.

Fossis...........

 

[Mental Granny]

I was tryin to drag a bale off a stack once an over to the pick up and someone said look up and there above my head a black snake was crawling out ! So long as it wasn't a rattler I was ok so I just looked for a min to see what it was and then went on but, in my head I kept thinking I really needed to watch better ! LOL!

 

[River Rat]

Thanks for all the memories...I don't remember the days of the stacked hay in the fields, but I do recall a picture of my grandma standing beside a stack with my brother sitting on top...he looked to be about 2-3 yrs old at the time.

My days with the square bales...ugh! Fire ants were the problem, hauling and stacking was something else. Up till about 8 years ago we still had the square bales...I remember the job of lifting 18 bales to load on a trailer and haul out to the cows, I did this like every other day. Depending what type of hay it was...rye grass was light, bahia was sometimes, soybean was heavy. These days you cannot find the labor to help pick up and stack.

Round bales are easier, lasts longer plus you have to have the machinery to transport...I'm getting to be an expert at hauling in from the fields, sometimes I would be riding on the 2 back wheels.

When in Kansas last month, I was seeing miles & miles of round bales in the fields, we finally asked someone what was the "grass", we were told wheat...I never knew that it could be cut green and baled right away. Then also at the same area of Caldwell to South Haven at the overpass a trailer rig of hay stacked too high had hit the overpass and lost about 6 rolls.

Over the past 2 years we find it cheaper to buy then to raise it yourself and have to hire someone to cut & bale.

Nothing beats the smell of freshly mowed hay!!!

RR