Hay Stacking Question for Allen???

Here's a pic of our stacker with the sweep pushing a load of hay onto it. The top portion of the "tower" with the hydra-fork on it was the same thing we used to feed with. The top portion, that the guy's sitting in, would unbolt. We had a cable that ran through a pulley chained to a high tree limb. We'd hook one end of the cable to the hydrafork and one end to a pickup and lift the whole works off. Then we'd lower it down onto the front "gooseneck" part of the haysled and bolt it on. We also took the lower part of the tower off the tractor and left it sit by the tree over the winter. Then we'd put the "cab" on the 656 and use it to pull the haysled. The "cab" for the tractor and the "cab" that the hydrafork is on were both made by my dad and consisted of angle iron frames and red-painted plywood bolted to the angle iron. There was a glass windshield that bolted in the front of the tractor cab and the rear of the hydrafork cab. The rest of the windows were a thick clear plastic. In the spring, we'd reverse the whole process and take the cabs apart and put the stacker tower back on the 656. Later on we bought an 886, but grandad didn't want to spend the money on a factory cab for it either, so we got one with just the rollover protective structure on it and dad built a plywood cab around that too. :)

There were a few of those around here; I still see 'em down in the sandhills from time to time.

The trouble with the cages was, you couldn't build a very big stack. We always built the stacks 6 sweeploads long and 2 wide. Those little cages were what? 16x16 feet?

But, I guess they did work well for the guy who was working all by himself, tho.

Allan

Yepper. Just mowed and raked or later on, used a swather with a crimper, just as in any hay field. When the hay was ready, we'd just run down the windrow with either the sweep or a buck bunching up the hay and then hauling it to the stack.

We raised alfalfa for the dairy cows, so that would translate into 90 to 95 lb small bales. Just too darned much work, if a guy is putting up a lot of hay.

We used a grapple and fork on the loader and either fed the hay loose or usually we liked to grind it because it was so darned much more efficient.

Hay will spoil here too if it isn't put up right. The stacks need to be packed pretty darned tight and have a good rounded "roof" or "lid" built onto 'em.

That's why those mechanical Haybusters never caught on; they would leave a depression or "hole" in the center of the stack and the stuff would set there and rot.

It was a heck of a lot of work but sure beat the daylites outta balin' hay; well, until those ND850 series balers came along. Thought we had gone to heaven when that happened! :>)

Allan

Made it easy to feed at the bunk with a feed wagon and also put a stop to the waste.

Allan