Stacking hay pictures-past & present

[AA]

Thanks for the pics have always wondered how those stacks were made- we used to make bucker piles then build a stack with farmhand-my first year at age 12 mine turned out a little on the larger size i was not to popular with the fella hired to haul them- then we got our first haybuster went thru 3 then started with a chain baler then belt baler now we run 2 new last year john deere balers behind mx 120's the 8 year old runs one and his mother runs the other works pretty well both have radios so they can talk back and forth he is super careful- always shuts it off to get out-he put over 100 hrs on that tractor feeding cows this past winter with bale processer-AA

[Hanta Yo]

Just out of curiosity, Ranch mom, it looks like you have more money in all the equipment and labor to do your haying that way. Interesting way of putting up hay, we used to be up in SW Montana, they still had "loaves" up there, seeing how you put your stack on by chains reminded me of how we loaded on "loaves" and then a large knife like a guillotine would slice the loaves into "slices" like bread slices. Last time I was up there, still a bunch of loaf stacks around. Thanks for sharing your pics!

Hanta Yo

[Northern Rancher]

Saw a bunch of those Hesston loaf makers parked along the road on our trip out to Alberta yesterday-you could probably pic up a fleet of them pretty cheap up here. Sorry to rain on your parade AA but eight year olds have no place running that big of equipment-been to too many careful kid funerals over the years to ever condone it.

[IL Rancher]

Yeah, Ranch Mom, the fodder loaves I was talking about around "here" have been primarily corn stalks. It is generally a nice and cheap filler for a dry cow ration and makes okay bedding if you shred it before baling it... Rough on belts however in the modern balers. neigbor must have put up 3000 bales last year and it would have been more if there had been more salks per acre.

As far as age of working on equipment... It is interesting, everytime I ask folks when their kids started helping they all say just about the same thing.. And I am not talking age of starting. They all say, should have waited a few more years. I know my neighbor almost had his 7 year old stomped by a cow but somehow the cow stopped up short long enough for the boy to get away. Its something that I "talk" to my three year old about all the time. She wants to help so BAD but for 9/10 things she is just to young. Might be 99/100 but she can help take care of bottle lambs right now and get dad things for bottle calves and help mom in the garden and stuff. She is also an excellent rider along in truck or tractor.

[Ranch Mom]

Hanta-the equipment is all picked up at farm sales and since noone does it anymore, it is quite cheap. We got the bread loafer for $600 bucks last year, it works beautifully, picked up a $300 dump rake this year. Once you have this stuff, it can be used forever and just fix the small stuff. Have you priced even a used baler? We bought ours for $5500 the first year we were married, and it is was a find. k_ranch is very good at repairs, so we make do with less, he has redone/and repainted both our tractor and stackmover so they look much more "new" than when we paid for them. Right now, k_ranch and I have only leased land and are investing in equipment to have bought and paid for before we start to make land payments. Having all the different kinds of equipment we might use makes us ready for any new situations that will come up in our future haying needs.

The equipment for stacking-k_ranch's dad has bought over the years the same way auctions or when people don't stack anymore, and all the labor is slave. k_ranch's dad, brother, k_ranch, k_ranch's mom, me, double aa (our boy), k_ranch's sister, and boyfriend came back last summer to help too. Makes it all go pretty fast. Guys used to come and camp with their whole family during haying and they paid them but that was a loong time ago, like in the horse pictures time.

We use a stackmover with the hydrafork to feed the breadloaves too, and I think at least one of the pics of feeding is a loaf.

[Ranch Mom]

AA Thanks for your post, interesting how everyone's operation progresses differently. Aren't radios great, has stopped many a fight over hand signals between k_ranch and I

As far as age and helping... To each their own. Everyone knows their kids, equipment, and ranch better than anyone else. Accidents do happen and they are a tragedy for sure. As for us, k_ranch is about as cautious a man as they come (sometimes annoyingly so ) and he and I make the call together when our kids are going to help. Double A helps with more/bigger tasks each year, and as he handles them, we move on. He even swathed some (before he left for his other dad's place) where k_ranch was helping a friend get down alfalfa hay before it burnt up.

Il. Rancher, good for you in finding things she can help with... If you don't involve her when she wants to help, later she won't want to. I love the enthusiasm of a young child. Sometimes it is more work to let em help but it really is good for their soul.

[Ranch Mom]

hahaha, speaking of help k_ranch very kindly suggested to me this morning that could I get a little more done today, than yesterday where I sat half the day in front of puter. soooo I will have to go and check in this pm. better go before he catches me lol


Northern Rancher, I like your set up. I bet with a 2 1/2 mile trip you were freezin your arse off. Quite the deal, I am impressed.

[Northern Rancher]

Yeah lucky it's a big a... and can take alot of freezing-worse is your hands-I froze my fingers so much as a kid they swell up pretty quick now a days-haven't been able to use the horses much last few years because of no snow-lots of cows fed with horses up here-now with $5.00 diesel there will probably be alot more.

[Jinglebob]

[Northern Rancher]

My bale slides on a skid plate-I juist back up throw my arms over bale pin them then throw the plate down and bale rolls onto it-when you go to roll it out you back team up-pull out your plate and away you go. Too much like work to winch bales up but if I get one on wheels I'll need that-a friend of mine built one that uses a rig to charge the winch battery as the wheels turn-I'll have to see it to believe it lol.Most ranchers could hire a man and feed a team for what the fuel and interest charges are on a tractor and bale buster-and every spring-my team has a little team lol-sold 4 off them already plus some odds and ends horses.

[Been There]

I have stacked hay behind an overshot stacker, (was pretty young then)
and a slide stacker. I have stacked with a farmhand, using a cage and not using one. I have baled small square bales And I have rolled a lot of hay into big round bales. That is surely easier.

[TXTibbs]

Dad always stacked hay for years....don't so much anymore but rather bale everything into round bales.. He would do like you and push them into what we always called "bucker piles", with the "bucker" on the tractor. Then dad would pick them up with the Bucker and stack it that way without a cage. He could weave it all together and go really high and made them look good. Most people use cages but dad never did. He could mash them down and pack them with the Bucker as well, but used to when they did it the old way like in the first pictures he talked about him and his siblings would have to get up there and tromp around to pack it....like in the 40's..50's etc.