v w wrote:
I have cut hay at 8 am and baled it at 4 pm. Vern
Care to tell more about that!
Was you making haylage?
No. Baled hay. This is getting too far off the subject. Follow me over to Off Topic. Farming then and now.
Vern
I will get back into the mower/conditioner. This was made by Brillion circa 1953 and was built on an international semi-mounted mower. The mower was a triangle shaped frame with a single castor wheel in the rear. this was a nice mower and made square turning corners easy. Just as the tractor, dad had an it mounted on an H, reached the end of the field the tractor could be turned to the right, the brake applied and the bar would move rearward and out leaving a couple feet of uncut hay which was then cut as the tractor moved after the turn. Brillion removed the wheel, placed a pickup and conditioner rolls under and rearward and added two castor wheels. The conditioner rollers were smooth steel about 8 to 10 inches in diameter and seven feet long and as I recall were kept under pressure by large springs. The rear wheels were about as far from the rear axle of the tractor as the front wheels were forward and the whole thing was quite heavy. This made turning very interesting, most mowing being done in third gear. After my first turn I was almost turned completely around. Experience soon overcame that problem. This setup would crush the entire stem. Drying time was quite reduced. I've never seen another conditioner like it. The drawbacks were the weight and the tendency to plug the steel rolls.
The day I was able to cut and bale would have been about 1956. That was quite a while ago and I can only remember having done it. The exact hours of cut to bale are guesses. The hay would have been second or third cutting alfalfa. The one thing I can remember was dads reaction when he saw what I had done. I was on the home farm and he spent the day on the other farm. A neighbor helped me bale. Dad could not believe it would have been dry enough to bale and quite frankly if anyone told me it could be done I would say wow and think yeah, right! He then said lets put the wagons in the shed for now. They were left there for several days. I think he was worried about burning the barn down. After sticking his arm in each day he decided we might as well put it in the barn. It was beautiful hay.
Today what were farms are now one field or a subdivision. We live on 14.7 acres of what was the home farm. This is the largest piece. Everything is housing and zoned residential. There is 8 acres which the farmer on another street uses as it touches him. I have seen pictures of my first "job" making hay. I rode the horse which was pulling the fork to lift loose hay into the mow. This kept me out of the way and the horse was quite capable of doing it without me. I was too young to remember but have seen pictures. For those too young to know loose hay was lifted off the wagon by a fork suspended from the top of the barn and then moved sideways on a trolley into the mow where the operator pulled a rope releasing the hay. The horse would then return as the operator pulled the trolley by the trip rope back for another load. The first I can actually remember was when I was about 9. My uncle had a Case baler that used wire to tie the bale. Two men rode the baler inserting a divider between each bale as it passed thru. The first bale was tied and the wires for the next bale were sent thru. The divider was then removed and when the next bale was ready the process was repeated. Hot and very dirty work. The bales were dropped and I drove the H while dad loaded the bales. Uncle went to chopped hay and dad bought the baler and converted it to twine. Mowers today are different and now I don't fully understand. The neighbors mower is small by todays standards cutting only about 16 feet. He has both the larger round baler or the large square baler. He does not have animals and sells the hay. Several times he sold the first cutting to a local milk producer who cut my postage size field while cutting that of the neighbor. The large zero turn mower cut the 8 acres in 27 minutes. A large rake arrived the next day and unfolded to rake large swaths. Then came a 50 foot gather and rolled from two sides into one. Then a chopper which I'm told was 675 hp, two semi trucks and one straight truck and in a short time nothing but stubble. I believe the hay was for immediate feed. When making fully dry hay the windrows are so large they take longer to dry and farmers 65 years ago took less time.
Feel free to add your own old timer tales and not just hay either. I don't care where this post goes. If you are still here you probably need a hobby. Questions also.
Vern
