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For some old farm boys...

Posted By: Hatchetman

For some old farm boys... - 07/22/20 10:46 PM

For any of you old farm boys who grew up with a sling track in the peak of the barn and maybe an old hay loader retired in the back end of the pasture.

I remember my dad and grandpa talking about it but never really saw a video of how it was done, so here's a good one!
If you're not into this old stuff then don't waste your time. But it sure makes you realize how this is just one more thing our for fathers did the hard way years ago.
I got a real kick out of the old coot!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk0f72nc8r4
Posted By: midlander

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/22/20 11:23 PM

Farming wasnt for sissies back then....
Posted By: wissmiss

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/22/20 11:28 PM

We had a hay loader similar to that on the farm I grew up on in Wisconsin. Not quite as modern as the one in the video. Coolest piece of equipment I’ve ever seen. When my folks sold the farm, I wanted to keep
It but there wasn’t a practical way to get it to Idaho.

It sold for scrap metal at the auction. I was so sad to see it go.

Thanks for posting the video- brought back lots of good memories.
Posted By: upstateNY

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/22/20 11:32 PM

Awesome.Best thing ive seen in a while.Thanks!!
Posted By: Getting There

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/22/20 11:43 PM

Thanks for sharing! Today a passed a large loader type tractor with 12 wheels. It was pulling a disk that took up one and a half lanes of the road. It could work up a long 80 in no time.
Posted By: maintenanceguy

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/22/20 11:50 PM

My grandfather had a cigar box full of arrow heads because he spent so many years looking at the ground while he plowed with a team of horses.

My parent's lived in New Holland PA when they were first married and rented a house from an old order Mennonite family. They became friends and when I was a kid, we would drive out to visit them a couple of times a year. As a kid 10 - 13 years old, I really had a lot of fun hanging out with the boys in the family for the day. (They had 15 kids) We farmed but they did everything a lot different.

I remember going fishing with them. Me and 50 Amish and Mennonite kids hanging out at the local pond. The older kids would remind the younger ones to "talk English" when I was around. I'd go back to being a kid again if they had a pill for that.
Posted By: bblwi

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/22/20 11:51 PM

Wow memory time for sure.
When I was 12 and 13 I helped with this method in two farms. I was the inexperienced lad 2nd guy on the wagon while loading and a mower in the barn
When I was 14 the first balers came along with the Wisconsin engines on them. We loaded the wagons and used bale hooks to hook 8-10 bales depending upon the model to lift and bring in using the track system and then mowing.
When I moved to the farm I lived in in HS we bought a baler and I was the wagon loader, and mower. We had 40 cows and fed about 5-6, thousand bales of hay per year and 1, 000 bales of straw. (Straw was a vacation)
When I left for college the farmer bought a kick baler!! That allowed a couple people to make quite a bit of hay.

The big issue for many barns in our area was when farmers switched from loose hay to baled hay they needed to pay attention to the huge increase in weight in the mow. Several barn floors came down until they got shored up to handle the extra weight.

Bryce
Posted By: Gary Benson

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 12:08 AM

Our barn had the setup but I never saw it work. My Dad did. I threw hay bales for 1.75/hr when I was a kid. When kids started asking 3.00/hr that's when the big round balers came out. The main shaft bearings weren't beefy enough and a lot of them got hot and burned hayfields.
Posted By: newfox1

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 12:12 AM

Thanks for posting, never going to complain about small squares again.
Posted By: RickA

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 12:23 AM

My mother always said that I was born 150 yrs to late That was about the best thing I’ve watched in years! Thanks for sharing!
Posted By: Trapper Dahlgren

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 12:52 AM

that was great, thanks for sharing smile
Posted By: Bruce T

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 12:55 AM

Nice
Posted By: trapdog1

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 01:02 AM

Enjoyed that very much!
Posted By: Hatchetman

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 01:03 AM

Haying has always brought back a lot of memories for me.
We baled most of hay on our farm, but for only 30 milkers and a few heifers it wasn't all that much.
Maybe 3 k a year.
I got my real initiation when I was 14 and went out to work for a guy who did custom baling for people along with his 600 or so acres he ran himself. Started at 1-1/2 cents per bale (whoopie!)
His son always loaded, the other senior hired kid unloaded, so I was a mow mole along with another kid...
This guy had the biggest baler new holland made back in the 70's and that dang thing really pounded out the bales and it never seemed to break down.
Did 2200 bales in one day. That was our record. Got done stacking the last bales at about 10 at night. That was a day with a windy previous night so no dew and hot as heck. Was baling by 7:30 that morning. This guy sold a lot of his bales on box cars so they were longer than normal and freeking heavy!
I think back to the days in the morning after milking, sitting in the kitchen while Pa and Eddie (the custom baler) would talk on the phone and discuss who would get me and when for the day...
It was something to hear, two stubborn old German guys bartering over my work schedule for the day...
I had zero say in the matter!
Posted By: Gary Benson

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 01:06 AM

Originally Posted by Hatchetman
Haying has always brought back a lot of memories for me.
We baled most of hay on our farm, but for only 30 milkers and a few heifers it wasn't all that much.
Maybe 3 k a year.
I got my real initiation when I was 14 and went out to work for a guy who did custom baling for people along with his 600 or so acres he ran himself. Started at 1-1/2 cents per bale (whoopie!)
His son always loaded, the other senior hired kid unloaded, so I was a mow mole along with another kid...
This guy had the biggest baler new holland made back in the 70's and that dang thing really pounded out the bales and it never seemed to break down.
Did 2200 bales in one day. That was our record. Got done stacking the last bales at about 10 at night. That was a day with a windy previous night so no dew and hot as heck. Was baling by 7:30 that morning. This guy sold a lot of his bales on box cars so they were longer than normal and freeking heavy!
I think back to the days in the morning after milking, sitting in the kitchen while Pa and Eddie (the custom baler) would talk on the phone and discuss who would get me and when for the day...
It was something to hear, two stubborn old German guys bartering over my work schedule for the day...
I had zero say in the matter!

Look how tough it made you though. laugh
Posted By: 52Carl

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 01:18 AM

I always wonder what those ridge rails at the top of the old barn was for. I remember as a kid, watching a big sow coon scurry up the inside barn wall all the way up to the ridge rail and run the length of it like a slalom course to the far end and then walk down the wall and out the back door. Absolutely dumbfounding. We found her nest in the mow. Four tiny milk suckers. We left them be. We had big trapping plans for the winter.
Posted By: Leftlane

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 01:23 AM

Everything was small square bales by the time I was old enough to day wage for any of the neighbors and before big round bales became popular. I kept busy every summer with that and punching cows or selling fur in the off season.

Yeah- I had a great childhood and because I worked hard and had some skills all of these ol farmers and ranchers trusted me to take their daughters out on weekends. At least the dumbest of the daughters who thought cowboys were cool anyway LOL
Posted By: Birdman382

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 01:30 AM

That the hay loader we had except J Deere pulled it. If you hooked the hooks to deep the wagon went up as well. We would put up five acres a day. nice hay and had 23 cows to feed. So much work. Poor Dad. Raised six kids ans lot of beagles for rabbit hunting.
Posted By: old243

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 01:32 AM

My barn has the wooden track, acar runs along it. I have never used it , but have seen them used. The old hay rope is still up there , I think and several pulleys. old243
Posted By: 50fps

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 01:38 AM

We got $5 a wagon stacked from field to mow.
Posted By: QuietButDeadly

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 02:03 AM

Our barn had the rail with a U shaped fork with fingers that pivoted to hold the hay when the rope got tight. I barely remember handling loose hay though. I do remember handling bales. We got a wire tie baler with an air cooled motor. That motor was a pain to get cranked but when it ran, that machine would pack way too much hay in those wires and they would eat your hands up too. We tried using the rail system for bales but it was too slow and cumbersome. Adjustable angle elevators with hay extensions were much more efficient but stacking it in the barn was a hot, nasty job.

I did most of the stacking on the wagon in the field and usually got to unload the wagon onto the elevator.
Posted By: Kevin Stake

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 02:13 AM

Growing up neighbors worked together and we used a fork for square bales and each barn was set up different. I usually helped stick the forks or was out loading the wagons. Hardly any cattle around here anymore all grain farmers now.
Posted By: BTLowry

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 03:01 AM

That will make a man out of you laugh


Neat video thanks for posting
Posted By: il.trapper

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 03:18 AM

I had never seen hay put up in that manner. I have tossed my share of bales, but never seen the loose hay put up like that. Fascinating !!!!

For back then that is some complicated machinery. Heck, even today it is rather complicated.

Last year or the year before my nephew had just graduated HS and was looking for work. I put in a call and got him hired on to put up square bales. He lasted one week and said he had had enough. He actually said he enjoyed part of it, but the heat and bugs got him. LOL
Posted By: bblwi

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 03:29 AM

How things have changed. One of the farms I worked with in a neighboring county milks 8,000 cows on two sites. They buy crops from 25 or more of the neighboring farms in the area. When they start cutting alfalfa they will lay down 2500 to 3000 acres in 3 days with their hay bines. they merge 4 18 foot windrows into large windrows and chop into trucks. If fields are smooth they can chop at about 9 mph and with the 3 choppers they are done in two days with good weather.

Bryce
Posted By: Michael Lippold

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 03:37 AM

Pretty cool too see, we have a track like that in dads barn and in gpas barn, I always was curious exactly how it worked, had a pretty good idea but definitely neat to see
Posted By: keystone

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 04:01 AM

Awesome video!!!
Posted By: Flint Hill fur

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 04:04 AM

That work will put hair on your chest! Thanks for posting
Posted By: Kevin Colpetzer

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 10:21 AM

I got blisters just watching
Posted By: hippie

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 10:57 AM

I saw one of those about 20 years ago while I was rabbit hunting. It was sitting close to an Amish farm back in a hollow and looked like they use it alltho I never saw it used.

Common to see horse teams being used around here for farming with a lot of Amish in the area. This spring I saw an 8 horse team, most just use 3 or4. It was an impressive sight!
Posted By: cpizzicharlie

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 11:36 AM

That is a great video, thanks for posting.
Posted By: 330-Trapper

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 11:50 AM

Really Cool
Posted By: Lugnut

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 11:51 AM

Very interesting video, thanks for posting.

I worked on various farms as hired help through my teens and twenties. Everything was already mechanized by then but that didn't make the farmers any less tough. Most of the farmers I worked for were missing fingers from trying to clear jams in mechanized balers.
Posted By: lcd

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 11:57 AM

That sure is a fancy way to load the wagon in the field. We used pitch forks, one on each side of the wagon where we had put the windrows up in "shocks". At the barn our hay lift was called a "spider" and it had 3 arms on each side. We also, as just about everybody in the south did, used mules instead of horses. I was just about grown before we had "baled" hay, and then it was tied with baling "wire". Talk about hard on your hands!!
Posted By: Crit-R-Dun

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 12:01 PM

Originally Posted by lcd
That sure is a fancy way to load the wagon in the field. We used pitch forks, one on each side of the wagon where we had put the windrows up in "shocks". At the barn our hay lift was called a "spider" and it had 3 arms on each side. We also, as just about everybody in the south did, used mules instead of horses. I was just about grown before we had "baled" hay, and then it was tied with baling "wire". Talk about hard on your hands!!


Hard work no doubt. I suppose your lift should have been called a "bug".
Posted By: mikeinpa

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/23/20 12:11 PM

What impressed me was his handling of his team. Years ago people were much closer to nature. Had to be in order to use horses and mules. Today’s people only see horse pulls rope,hay goes up. A lot easier said than done. And when the days done,you can’t park your horse and shut it down. Need to care for them,unhitch,water,etc. I was fortunate enough to hear stories from my dad about grandpa and his grandpa farming with horses. Also knew an old boy from Texas who told me about running teams of mules and hoeing corn by hand in pre depression east Texas. The thing I can’t figure out is how the heck does he wear those barn boots out working hay in summer heat. 😀
Posted By: Garryowen

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/24/20 02:03 AM

I remember seeing hay stacks outside of barns. Never seen it done though. We used a bailer. I used to get a penny a bail when I worked for some one else. Those were tough days.

Garryowen
Posted By: w side rd 151

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/24/20 08:25 AM

When I was a teenager I would get $10.00 a week plus ,meals for helping with baling and the morning milking . We would be in the barn before 5 AM .once we finished milking it was time to unload any bales still on wagons After dinner we would get to baling hay /straw .It was two on the wagon pulling bales off the baler and stacking .And normally there was 2 guys at the barn unloading and stacking in the barn .That was where I learned the value of a dollar .That $10.00 a week was my money to buy a hunting license and ammo and a few clothing items if I had any money left . As time went on the kick baler came into use .That meant there was no need for anyone on the wagon in the field .There where many years I helped to bale and stack in the barn 10,000 to 15000 bales in a summer season But those days are gone I miss having the physical ability to do it .But not the labor and sweat it too do it
Posted By: w side rd 151

Re: For some old farm boys... - 07/24/20 11:50 AM

Here is one more hing to take notice .All the scenes shown are on flat , level fields .I think the 2 guys on the wagon load of loose hay would not stay on that wagon very long even if it was a gentle slope
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