How to make bales
March 2, 2019 8:19 PM Subscribe
I really really like this but I'd also love to see how this went pre-tractors.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 8:36 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 8:36 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
And now we know from an aerial standpoint how a tractor births a giant marshmallow.
posted by not_on_display at 8:39 PM on March 2, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by not_on_display at 8:39 PM on March 2, 2019 [5 favorites]
And now we know from an aerial standpoint how a tractor births a giant marshmallow.
They also look like old-fashioned shredded wheat biscuits.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:06 PM on March 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
They also look like old-fashioned shredded wheat biscuits.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:06 PM on March 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
Hay Baling technology has changed an awful lot since I was young and hefting many bales.
Back then, we sometimes paused between bouts of back breaking labour to stare at clouds and try to predict when the next rain would fall?
Wikipedia doesn't have ref for "Hay Stooker"?
Whenever we drive in the country past a hayfield, we chant: "Hay... Did you happen to see the most beautiful girl in the world?"
posted by ovvl at 9:20 PM on March 2, 2019 [8 favorites]
Back then, we sometimes paused between bouts of back breaking labour to stare at clouds and try to predict when the next rain would fall?
Wikipedia doesn't have ref for "Hay Stooker"?
Whenever we drive in the country past a hayfield, we chant: "Hay... Did you happen to see the most beautiful girl in the world?"
posted by ovvl at 9:20 PM on March 2, 2019 [8 favorites]
Three films by the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station show how it was done in the 1940s, by hand or using non-baling machines. A John Deere animation shows the workings of a large round baler.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 9:24 PM on March 2, 2019 [16 favorites]
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 9:24 PM on March 2, 2019 [16 favorites]
I really really like this but I'd also love to see how this went pre-tractors.
It mostly didn't, not bales anyway.
Silage and hay was often cut and laid down manually, carted and then packed manually into hay lofts, hay barns or hay mounds for storage. And stuff like baling wire or cordage cheap enough to bale hay with more or less requires mechanized production of baling wire, so the whole powered tractor, mechanized baling wire and mechanized wire production tend to go hand in hand.
I was recently looking up hay bale prices at the local Cenex fuel-n-feed farm store because I want to start a compost pile and need some roughage, and was surprised to learn how expensive hay can be for the good stuff with a lot of alfalfa content.
I have a friend of a friend who has about twenty goats. I've spent some time feeding them, and they're surprisingly picky about their hay. You can throw in about a 5-10 pound flake off a bale of run of the mill alfalfa and they'll stampede and pick all the good stuff out of it in about three seconds flat, leaving a fairly large amount of the rougher straw behind. They'll go through a lot of hay and alfalfa. I'm guessing it's at least a 70# bale a day for that little herd of goats.
posted by loquacious at 9:27 PM on March 2, 2019 [8 favorites]
It mostly didn't, not bales anyway.
Silage and hay was often cut and laid down manually, carted and then packed manually into hay lofts, hay barns or hay mounds for storage. And stuff like baling wire or cordage cheap enough to bale hay with more or less requires mechanized production of baling wire, so the whole powered tractor, mechanized baling wire and mechanized wire production tend to go hand in hand.
I was recently looking up hay bale prices at the local Cenex fuel-n-feed farm store because I want to start a compost pile and need some roughage, and was surprised to learn how expensive hay can be for the good stuff with a lot of alfalfa content.
I have a friend of a friend who has about twenty goats. I've spent some time feeding them, and they're surprisingly picky about their hay. You can throw in about a 5-10 pound flake off a bale of run of the mill alfalfa and they'll stampede and pick all the good stuff out of it in about three seconds flat, leaving a fairly large amount of the rougher straw behind. They'll go through a lot of hay and alfalfa. I'm guessing it's at least a 70# bale a day for that little herd of goats.
posted by loquacious at 9:27 PM on March 2, 2019 [8 favorites]
Sigh.
I has a sad. This is the year we bought plenty of hay--bought and paid for it, not just contracted for it. So, all the $$ is tied up in hay, and the hay...
is stacked and tarped under 8 foot of snow down an unplowed side road 60 miles away and a thousand feet more in altitude. So we're buying expensive hay from the local feedstore.
Sigh.
This sucks.
posted by BlueHorse at 9:33 PM on March 2, 2019 [12 favorites]
I has a sad. This is the year we bought plenty of hay--bought and paid for it, not just contracted for it. So, all the $$ is tied up in hay, and the hay...
is stacked and tarped under 8 foot of snow down an unplowed side road 60 miles away and a thousand feet more in altitude. So we're buying expensive hay from the local feedstore.
Sigh.
This sucks.
posted by BlueHorse at 9:33 PM on March 2, 2019 [12 favorites]
Wait, are you saying hay is just grass that's been left out in the sun?
posted by dobbs at 9:56 PM on March 2, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by dobbs at 9:56 PM on March 2, 2019 [5 favorites]
p.s. if you want nitrogen and carbon for your compost pile, get soiled straw from a stable, not expensive alfalfa hay.
posted by ryanrs at 10:09 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by ryanrs at 10:09 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
Those are the older rolled bales, which I prefer to refer to as "cow eggs" (as that's clearly what cows hatch from).
In my part of the world, farmers have mostly converted to "Large Square Bales" (YT) because they're easier to handle with a lift, transport and store.
posted by bonehead at 10:11 PM on March 2, 2019 [5 favorites]
In my part of the world, farmers have mostly converted to "Large Square Bales" (YT) because they're easier to handle with a lift, transport and store.
posted by bonehead at 10:11 PM on March 2, 2019 [5 favorites]
Wait, are you saying hay is just grass that's been left out in the sun?
Yeah, for days, at room temperature. Don't eat it.
posted by Namlit at 10:20 PM on March 2, 2019 [9 favorites]
Yeah, for days, at room temperature. Don't eat it.
posted by Namlit at 10:20 PM on March 2, 2019 [9 favorites]
how is ba-le formed
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:22 PM on March 2, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:22 PM on March 2, 2019 [6 favorites]
that "Large Square Bales" is fantastic
posted by growabrain at 12:22 AM on March 3, 2019
posted by growabrain at 12:22 AM on March 3, 2019
When I saw the title I thought for sure this was going to be the link. I was so relieved to see it wasn't. Because honestly, who needs to see that?
posted by scalefree at 2:14 AM on March 3, 2019 [14 favorites]
posted by scalefree at 2:14 AM on March 3, 2019 [14 favorites]
Scalefree, this is so funny
posted by growabrain at 2:21 AM on March 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by growabrain at 2:21 AM on March 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
p.s. if you want nitrogen and carbon for your compost pile, get soiled straw from a stable, not expensive alfalfa hay.
Yep, there's no way I'm feeding expensive feed hay to a compost pile, and I'm not mucking out and hauling used hay for a small kitchen compost pile. I just wanted about a bale of plain old clean, cheap straw to help get things started since we don't generate a lot of newspaper or Kraft paper up here, and blackberry bramble cuts don't compost well or offer a lot of easy roughage.
The nitrogen and carbon will come from the ridiculous amount of coffee grinds we generate.
posted by loquacious at 4:33 AM on March 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
Yep, there's no way I'm feeding expensive feed hay to a compost pile, and I'm not mucking out and hauling used hay for a small kitchen compost pile. I just wanted about a bale of plain old clean, cheap straw to help get things started since we don't generate a lot of newspaper or Kraft paper up here, and blackberry bramble cuts don't compost well or offer a lot of easy roughage.
The nitrogen and carbon will come from the ridiculous amount of coffee grinds we generate.
posted by loquacious at 4:33 AM on March 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
I wish someone could post Christian Bale before and after pics.
I am almost 60 and when I was a kid I got to help relatives in Maine hay. Poverty prevented more modern methods and as the hay was pitched up onto the back of a truck, my job was to run back and forth stomping it down to make room for more. I have such vivid memories of laying on the hay and looking up as we passed under trees on the way back to the barn. I have always appreciated having been able to take part in this process.
posted by InkaLomax at 4:33 AM on March 3, 2019 [5 favorites]
I am almost 60 and when I was a kid I got to help relatives in Maine hay. Poverty prevented more modern methods and as the hay was pitched up onto the back of a truck, my job was to run back and forth stomping it down to make room for more. I have such vivid memories of laying on the hay and looking up as we passed under trees on the way back to the barn. I have always appreciated having been able to take part in this process.
posted by InkaLomax at 4:33 AM on March 3, 2019 [5 favorites]
I think folks are asking about a hand bailer/box bailer. I've used one that lays horizontally, rather than this vertical one, just for re-constructing small square (rectangular, really) bales that were starting to fall apart. It requires a fair amount of strength or sufficient mechanical leverage (which the bailer I used did not have) to get the hay compressed as much as it should be, in order for the bale to really hold together. It's also pretty slow, so not practically super useful outside of, say, off-grid straw bale home or living roof construction.
Those videos from the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station are cool! I was disappointed that the fpp video didn't show the nice automated machine in the process of actually pooping out a bale. (But not disappointed enough to go searching for alternate videos, I guess.)
posted by eviemath at 4:33 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
Those videos from the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station are cool! I was disappointed that the fpp video didn't show the nice automated machine in the process of actually pooping out a bale. (But not disappointed enough to go searching for alternate videos, I guess.)
posted by eviemath at 4:33 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
What if it (this will give a few readers chills, sorry) RAINS? Get out the kicker.
posted by sammyo at 5:58 AM on March 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by sammyo at 5:58 AM on March 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
I really really like this but I'd also love to see how this went pre-tractors.
Monet has you covered.
........
Wait, are you saying hay is just grass that's been left out in the sun?
Well, except for those bales over there at the edge of the field. In the shade. Where the sun didn't dry it out as much. Probably half clover, too.
You go pick those up, okay? I'll just stand here. And watch.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:05 AM on March 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
Monet has you covered.
........
Wait, are you saying hay is just grass that's been left out in the sun?
Well, except for those bales over there at the edge of the field. In the shade. Where the sun didn't dry it out as much. Probably half clover, too.
You go pick those up, okay? I'll just stand here. And watch.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:05 AM on March 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
You can also bale cotton! I'm an engineer that supports the assembly line that builds the cotton baler. Here's a few videos about my machine:
Baler animation
Field video
posted by TrialByMedia at 6:08 AM on March 3, 2019 [10 favorites]
Baler animation
Field video
posted by TrialByMedia at 6:08 AM on March 3, 2019 [10 favorites]
Do not fall into the baler.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 7:32 AM on March 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 7:32 AM on March 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
I've only ever done this manually with a pitchfork on tiny island hayfields. Call me a hipster baler if you will, but pitchforks are sneaky things: the less you dig 'em in, the more you pick up.
posted by scruss at 7:38 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by scruss at 7:38 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
Not from a farming family, but I grew up in a rural fringe area. As a kid, my cousins seemed to enjoy testing my credulity and used to swear that inside those big round bales were wrapped the corpses of dead cows or pigs and that's how farmers got rid of the carcasses of their animals.
I'm pretty sure I never really believed them but I certainly recall giving the round bales a second look while passing a big field.
My cousins also used to give me empty bubblegum wrappers and swear that if I chewed on the wrapper it would turn into bubblegum. I definitely never believed that one.
My cousins were jerks.
posted by glonous keming at 8:01 AM on March 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
I'm pretty sure I never really believed them but I certainly recall giving the round bales a second look while passing a big field.
My cousins also used to give me empty bubblegum wrappers and swear that if I chewed on the wrapper it would turn into bubblegum. I definitely never believed that one.
My cousins were jerks.
posted by glonous keming at 8:01 AM on March 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
As for pre-industrial, I only remember using a scythe once but it was amazingly efficient, one could work across a field row almost effortlessly, although it's a different movement and the day after a big field there would be twingy muscles you never knew...
posted by sammyo at 8:18 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by sammyo at 8:18 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
My neighbor in upstate New York has been using his front and side fields to grow hay lately, and he uses a baler of a type I wasn't familiar with. It is high comedy .
posted by minervous at 8:26 AM on March 3, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by minervous at 8:26 AM on March 3, 2019 [5 favorites]
The "make the hay bales" -- all of it happens in the little boxy thing following the tractor, like the video shows. You drive over the windrows and the baler picks up the hay and spins it 'round and 'round using belts, kind of, and when it gets big enough it wraps the outside of the bales with (a) string or (b) netting and spits the bales out. There isn't a whole lot to see, even from ground level, when you're making round bales. It's one step and it happens inside the round baler.
Once all the round bales are made, someone drives the tractor around the field with a spike on the 3-point and picks up each round bale by stabbing it with the spike and then kind of lines up the round bales at the edge of the field so that if there's enough growth for a second cut, the field isn't all full of round bales.
minervous's neighbor is doing square bales with what is called a "kick-baler" which bales the square bales (40 to 80 lbs, depending on size, hay type, and dryness) and kicks them into the wagon. It takes a lot fewer people than a regular square bale but also sometimes on turns the wagon will be not-in-the-line-of-kick and then you have to go through the field with a pickup truck and rescue the bales that didn't hit the wagon.
If you DO NOT have a kick baler, and you're making square bales, then you need some people to follow the baler and pick up the bales and throw them onto the wagon and a person on the wagon to stack the hay and it's this whole horrible sweaty work thing with lots of bits of hay flying around.
Once the square bales are in the wagon, regardless of how they get there, they go to the barn and are thrown off the wagon and into the mow (rhymes with COW) where they are stacked.
posted by which_chick at 10:00 AM on March 3, 2019 [7 favorites]
Once all the round bales are made, someone drives the tractor around the field with a spike on the 3-point and picks up each round bale by stabbing it with the spike and then kind of lines up the round bales at the edge of the field so that if there's enough growth for a second cut, the field isn't all full of round bales.
minervous's neighbor is doing square bales with what is called a "kick-baler" which bales the square bales (40 to 80 lbs, depending on size, hay type, and dryness) and kicks them into the wagon. It takes a lot fewer people than a regular square bale but also sometimes on turns the wagon will be not-in-the-line-of-kick and then you have to go through the field with a pickup truck and rescue the bales that didn't hit the wagon.
If you DO NOT have a kick baler, and you're making square bales, then you need some people to follow the baler and pick up the bales and throw them onto the wagon and a person on the wagon to stack the hay and it's this whole horrible sweaty work thing with lots of bits of hay flying around.
Once the square bales are in the wagon, regardless of how they get there, they go to the barn and are thrown off the wagon and into the mow (rhymes with COW) where they are stacked.
posted by which_chick at 10:00 AM on March 3, 2019 [7 favorites]
Here in rural midatlantic US, nice 4' diameter round bales that are stored inside and were not ever rained on, seller loads but YOU HAUL, run about $35 to $40 a bale. Square bales have more work associated with them and they're about $4.00 or $5.00 apiece, you load&haul. Worse-quality hay (rained on, first cut instead of second cut, more weeds, some mold, too late cut, etc) is less money but there's a lot more waste.
posted by which_chick at 10:05 AM on March 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by which_chick at 10:05 AM on March 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
Wow, I totally misread the post title as "How to make babies" and was really confused for a few moments trying to fit in "making hay".
posted by zengargoyle at 12:45 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by zengargoyle at 12:45 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
which_chick, unless it’s “equine grade” hay, which my friends will happy sell you at a criminal markup.
posted by wintermind at 1:19 PM on March 3, 2019
posted by wintermind at 1:19 PM on March 3, 2019
My equines are not fancy enough for "equine grade" hay. :) They eat the regular stuff just fine.
posted by which_chick at 2:10 PM on March 3, 2019
posted by which_chick at 2:10 PM on March 3, 2019
Oh, all these videos are great. I grew up in an intentional community which had a smallholding of about 20 acres and have very fond memories of harvesting the hay - to a child's eyes it mostly seemed to consist of cutting the grass, forming it into rows/leaving it to dry for several days then having to rush out to bale it in a panic before rain got to it. We had two rather ancient tractors, and although we did have a baler of the small, square-producing type it never seemed to work very well, so a lot of time was spent stopping and cursing at it when the twine broke and the bales came out half-tied.
I used to help by collecting and stacking the bales in the field - I was initially too small to do it on my own, but could do it with another child. There would frequently be mice in the bales, sliced by the twine, so I was a little apprehensive to watch Scalefree's link above!
After the hay had been baled and stacked in the field, we would drive the tractor and ancient trailer round collecting the bales, then before returning home we would celebrate bringing in the harvest by having lunch together in the field, with homegrown produce and home-brewed beer. Then the kids got to sit on the bales on the trailer and we'd all drive back down to put the bales in the barn. Despite the (relatively) modern machinery it felt like something from another time, with a real sense of community - watching these links has made me feel very nostalgic and warm and fuzzy, so thank you :-)
posted by kumonoi at 2:52 PM on March 3, 2019 [5 favorites]
I used to help by collecting and stacking the bales in the field - I was initially too small to do it on my own, but could do it with another child. There would frequently be mice in the bales, sliced by the twine, so I was a little apprehensive to watch Scalefree's link above!
After the hay had been baled and stacked in the field, we would drive the tractor and ancient trailer round collecting the bales, then before returning home we would celebrate bringing in the harvest by having lunch together in the field, with homegrown produce and home-brewed beer. Then the kids got to sit on the bales on the trailer and we'd all drive back down to put the bales in the barn. Despite the (relatively) modern machinery it felt like something from another time, with a real sense of community - watching these links has made me feel very nostalgic and warm and fuzzy, so thank you :-)
posted by kumonoi at 2:52 PM on March 3, 2019 [5 favorites]
They are missing several steps. Praying for rain, praying for it not to rain, fixing the tractor, fixing the fucking tractor again, waiting for the guy with the attachments to come if you're a small op and don't have your own, blasting music to scare the deer and hares out of the field pre dawn, finding enough teenagers to pick all the bales up, stacking the bales indoors. It might seem like you could make enough teenagers of your own but really it's a short span of time between big enough to be useful and off to school so you'll have to out source.
I really really like this but I'd also love to see how this went pre-tractors.
When I was a kid there were still local men on the island where we spent our summers who cut hay with scythes, hand raked it into windrows, hand turned it and made hay sacks. If you have a barn and a horse team you can upgrade to cutting it with a horse drawn mower then forking it up into wagons and hauling it to a barn where it's stacked loose. There are plenty of living adults who spent much of their childhood summers doing this. You need a damn big barn though as loose hay takes up a lot of space. There is a lot of knowledge and good weather required too so though as damp-ish hay will get hot and can spontaneously combust so sometimes it's better to make outdoor haystacks. Which is a skill, btw.
Standard informational post: straw is not hay, hay is not for bedding, alfalfa is not grass.
posted by fshgrl at 6:59 PM on March 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
I really really like this but I'd also love to see how this went pre-tractors.
When I was a kid there were still local men on the island where we spent our summers who cut hay with scythes, hand raked it into windrows, hand turned it and made hay sacks. If you have a barn and a horse team you can upgrade to cutting it with a horse drawn mower then forking it up into wagons and hauling it to a barn where it's stacked loose. There are plenty of living adults who spent much of their childhood summers doing this. You need a damn big barn though as loose hay takes up a lot of space. There is a lot of knowledge and good weather required too so though as damp-ish hay will get hot and can spontaneously combust so sometimes it's better to make outdoor haystacks. Which is a skill, btw.
Standard informational post: straw is not hay, hay is not for bedding, alfalfa is not grass.
posted by fshgrl at 6:59 PM on March 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
Yeah, my father-in-law baled and sold hay as a college kid rural Illinois. Most of the stories involve the ins-and-outs of recruiting teams of teenagers at just the right time, as was alluded to in the post above.
posted by eustatic at 7:29 PM on March 3, 2019
posted by eustatic at 7:29 PM on March 3, 2019
$5 an hour in the mid 80s. I probably made more than, given inflation.
posted by fshgrl at 10:27 PM on March 3, 2019
posted by fshgrl at 10:27 PM on March 3, 2019
I hope we get to lay in any hay this year. It's been so wet we've got springs popping up in every dip and divot.
posted by ob1quixote at 11:23 AM on March 4, 2019
posted by ob1quixote at 11:23 AM on March 4, 2019
hay is not for bedding
Yeah you tell the goats that! Eats everything, my foot!
Disclaimer: I am a city mouse in the country, but I do know my straw from hay and I've spent a few hours with a pitchfork here and there. I have not cut hay or done anything but help deploy smaller consumer-ag sized bales.
I don't remember the specifics of it but there's an art to making a haystack, kind of like making a straw thatched roof, where you're laying the hay in the haystack in layers and a pattern to give it some structure, then, hopefully, a water shedding roof. Hence the iconic if exaggerated mushroom top of, say, a cartoon haystack.
I'd imagine you'd finish of a good feed haystack filled with hay with a straw cap that was laid and thatched to shed water and help hold the pile together in wind. Pile up enough hay like that and take care as you're laying it and it will become a pretty dense, heavy pile of matter because it'll be all woven together throughout the structure.
posted by loquacious at 11:53 AM on March 4, 2019
Yeah you tell the goats that! Eats everything, my foot!
Disclaimer: I am a city mouse in the country, but I do know my straw from hay and I've spent a few hours with a pitchfork here and there. I have not cut hay or done anything but help deploy smaller consumer-ag sized bales.
I don't remember the specifics of it but there's an art to making a haystack, kind of like making a straw thatched roof, where you're laying the hay in the haystack in layers and a pattern to give it some structure, then, hopefully, a water shedding roof. Hence the iconic if exaggerated mushroom top of, say, a cartoon haystack.
I'd imagine you'd finish of a good feed haystack filled with hay with a straw cap that was laid and thatched to shed water and help hold the pile together in wind. Pile up enough hay like that and take care as you're laying it and it will become a pretty dense, heavy pile of matter because it'll be all woven together throughout the structure.
posted by loquacious at 11:53 AM on March 4, 2019
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posted by migurski at 8:34 PM on March 2, 2019 [38 favorites]