Re: How was cutting hay handled years ago(weather)

Posted by Hal/WA on May 11, 2006 at 19:21:59 from (148.65.0.200):

In Reply to: How was cutting hay handled years ago(weather) posted by plumboy on May 11, 2006 at 04:52:18:

While I was growing up in the 50's and 60's, we put up a bunch of hay. It was mostly alfalfa, with some grass and a few weeds in it. Early on we mowed and raked and later used a swather that featured a hay conditioner that smashed the stems and allowed the hay to dry much faster. In those days, most of the hay was put up in small square, wire tied bales that weighed from about 60 to 120 lbs. We "bucked" the bales by hand, picking them up and placing them on the hay trailer where usually my brother stacked them up about 5 tiers high. When the trailer was full, we drove the load to the barn with the tractor. At the barn we used a hay conveyer to put the bales in the hay storage area. The way our barn was built, sometimes we stacked the hay to the rafters, which was about 30 feet high. The conveyer really helped, especially as the hay pile got high, but stacking in the barn was hot, dusty, tiring work. When the load was safely in the barn, we would all get big drinks from the garden hose and would wet down our hats. Haying was the biggest job on our ranch and I was always relieved when it was done.

We usually cut the alfalfa when it was beginning to bloom, as it was supposed to have the most nutritional value at that point. Unfortunately that usually occurred during a fairly rainy season in late June or early July. If the unbaled hay got rained on, it would need to be turned with the rake (with the loss of lots of the little leaves). If it had been baled and got rained on significantly, the bales would need to be stood up and leaned against eachother like teepes to dry better. A couple of times we never did get the bales as dry as my Dad felt comfortable about, and we had to put rock salt over every layer of bales in the barn. This was supposed to stop the fermentation or rotting of the hay and the buildup of heat, which could have burned the barn down. Almost every year we had to deal with rain. Every bale was handled many times before it was stored.

I didn't do much haying after I finished college. My Dad retired from farming and subdivided our property. Others now own the hayland and I think they still put up some hay.

They way we did haying required a lot of manual labor, which my family had available while my brothers and I were around. Very few farmers around here do the small bales anymore, because they can't get anyone to handle them. There are machines that can be used to handle small bales, but sooner or later they have to be stacked by hand. Most farmers have gone to the large round bales or the truly huge square bales with 5 or 6 twine ties on them. The large bales are handled with large tractors or forklifts.

A friend of mine was the football coach for many years at the local high school. He told me that when he started as coach, there was absolutely no reason to have a weight room at the school--the players had all spent the summer working on farms and were tough as nails. But later, these jobs dried up, and he needed to get the boys pumping iron, just like at a town school.

I have a corner of our old ranch and have around 7 or 8 acres that are tillable. Over the years, this land has got very brushy and it bothers me to see it uncared for and out of production I retired a few years ago and have been clearing the tillable area to grow hay. So I am in the market for a working small square baler, and will probably do all the haying myself, alone. Funny how things sometimes go full circle!

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