Stacking Bales off the Baler

When I was a kid I used to help a neighbor with his hay after I finished work on another farm. We would load his two wagons right off the baler, than we would hook up a sled to the baler’s draw bar. The sled would hold 8 or 9 bales stacked by two’s. when you had that loaded, you could push on a sweet spot on the stack and that would the cause stack to dump. (but remained stacked). he called it stooking the hay. I hated it because it meant you had to handle every bale two extra times compared to working directly off the wagon. once to stook it and another time to load wagon. I wish I could get pictures of the thing. the mechanics where neat and simple.
Doubt my description has any value, but your question brought back memories.
Meleon

I would disagree slightly with you Mitch. Round balers where made for big tractors, and you have to start one in the winter to feed it out. Kicker wagons leave my neighbor standing by his barn wishing some one would help him unload the 8 wagons he has just made. A ” bale babe” No offense please, is the best of efficiency and cooperation. I think the possible best thing would be loose hay, but I can’t say for sure ( my wife hates even the thought of it). As for loading on to the wagon with horses. It is great ( at least for us) I am fortunate to work pretty level ground. On the few side hills that do exist here I work a cross the hill and make short turn around on the ends. In Indiana I saw Amish pulling balers and wagons over ground as steep as your I bet. They had to be very careful how they stacked them to keep them from falling off.

I think up and down big hills all the time would make it harder. Now that I think about it I have another Amish friend that is rigged for six, so he can bale on hills all day. Out to go mowing! I hope to bale tomorrow what I am mowing this morning. It is as much side hill as I get. I will try to get a little video of us making that up hill turn around. Only caveat would be that my baler has been very frustrating and probably will continue to be tomorrow!

the hay is mowed and tedded today, about four acres. It has a nice crop of second cutting trefoil mixed with some dry first cutting grass. it appears it will dry easily and we can rake and bale early tomorrow. I hope so as now there is a threat of rain ( 20%). It was hard mowing, with some plugging for the younger teamster, and several passes to complete a triangle at the end. Those are always a pain, especially with heavy hay. It took us a little over an hour and a half with two teams, not particularly fast, but I think the horses may have gotten more rest than they needed with the plugging. At one pm we returned with the rotatory tedder and tedded in second gear (faster turning tedder) and that took a little over an hour. I was thrilled that I could ted what four horses mowed faster than they mowed it.

Hopefully we will have a nice baling video tomorrow. D
Ps. I think I fixed the baler today
Pss. I broke a seat post on a mower today as i was coming out of the field. It is one that I had previously welded so I guess it isn’t too surprising that it broke again. I think the welds lasted about two years. Today I was able to pull one off a parts mower. Good thing as it turns out those can be hard to find, and not readily available for purchase. Just in case anyone is wondering, “bale Babe” is a term of endearment I use for my wife when she stacks bales on the wagon; which she likes so much she usually won’t share the job with anyone. d

Hi Eli, What does it make you wonder about how you make hay? Last night it rained 2/10ths of an inches. Makes me question why I get up! It seems pretty clear to me that folks that buy hay are making more money than folks that make it or sell it. Folks that sell it are, for the most part, not realizing the cost of the nutrients they are selling from their farm.

To make your own hay for your own animals; especially with horse power, seems to me to be an effort to demonstrate a system that can be more sustainable. Of course there is nothing in our economic system intended to reward sustainability.

I also make hay with horses, because I enjoy it, I can’t really think of anything else I would rather do. Even with the rain and baler problems. I don’t know how true that would be if I was working off farm five days a week. I think that makes it tough.

Donn it was more of a sarcasm thing I worked just as hard both nights one night made 1 acre and over 100 the next. I do refrigeration work an dairy farms so when the weather gets hot I get busy. 5 days a week plus on call nights and week ends. Makes it hard to make hay. I was a dairy farmer for 20 years and making hay was one of my favorite things to do. I am working toward cutting second crop with my horses but time will tell. Eli

I do service and refrigeration work on daries in eastern Wisconsin and the Up. I can’t believe what some people pay me to do. I always fixed everything I could myself. People have changed, some don’t even look they just pick up the phone.
I hope to cut some second crop with my horses but I have never done it before. My goal is to cut a little 2 acre field that is a little thin and should mow easy. I wanted to rake with the horses Sunday but was in a hurry so I took the tractor,then blew a hydraulic hose. Should have used the horses.
I built a 10 bale grapple for the front of my skid steer but it has been so wet I get stuck and didn’t get a chance to use it much.