Picture for Today

I like this one!

We never had one; Dad thought that was more work than using a bucker and overshot stacker that my Grandpa invented.

One thing is for sure. You really have to take your hat off to farmers of yester-year. No wonder offspring flocked to the city.

I was an urbanian growing up and have only been farming about 35 years. Maybe being there would have changed things, but think about being born on a farm and looking at this workload, I think I would have run off to town too. But that's just speculation.

Mark

This one is just great!

Makes me think about how my grandparents must have worked SO hard, every day!

We used one like that on the farm for a short time. Flat chain up the sides with wood slats horizontally between the chains then rope about 8 inches apart on the slats. It was broken somewhere most of the time. From that we went to a New Idea.

I remember the big straw piles in the field when I was about 4 or 5 which would of been in 1964-65. But I only remember seeing one or two piles one time. I remember the day my mom, dad and I (I only helped) push the old buck rake out of the machine shed about the same time period and it sat outside until 1978 when we finally cut it apart. I kept the caster wheels for a long time until just a year ago.

Dick2, That was my first job in about 1960. Driving the team to pull up the stacker. I remember the name overshot. But not the other one. Yours lifted the hay up and over to the stack, another one slid the hay up and onto the stack. Do you remember the difference? Any photos by chance. Some day I want to make a model of one.

Great panting. We never had one of these. One dog stays with Dad, and the other one with Mom. Very common. It was always a great site to see Mom coming to the field with FOOD.

dave, that was my reaction to the picture, something along the lines of "wonder how many times they had to fix that thing to get a load that size?" i have a low-use nice one like it in my toybox. i took it out one day to see how it worked, put it in gear in the driveway, went about 4 feet, and a wood slat snapped. i just put it back inside at that point.

Awesome.. Regardless of the work, being planting or the harvest, or putting up hay. Seeing Grandma, Mom, or Aunt Mary, coming out to the field with that metal gallon jug of ice water or tea was a great thing to see. I can still taste that cold metallic taste of the jug or the metal cups that were so popular before tupperware. Most likely considered poison today. But I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Again, thank you John for the memories

For several years, as a young boy, I drove an SC Case pulling a hayrack and a hay loader. That loader was durable...never had it break down nor did it have any ropes in the mechanism. Case was in low gear, near idling, and my uncle worked hard as he kept the hay leveled and stacked properly in the hayrack. One time, as the load was nearly full, I was waiting to hear him yell to stop. Then out of the corner of my right eye I saw his pitchfork sailing away in the air. I looked back and saw him laying on the ground. He fell at least 10 ft or more. He got up, dusted himself off, and we went to the barn to unload. He threw the fork so he wouldn"t stab himself when he hit the ground. Those farmers were tough in those days.
LA in WI

once while at a treshing bee i saw one of the hardest working men i have ever know.
i think he would rather work than sleep while watching the guys feeding the trshing machince he said if we still farmed like that i wouldn't be farming.

I can remember my dad and uncle struggling with one of those. Wasn't many seasons later, they found a guy with a baler, and quit doing loose hay. Can remember a corn binder, and shocking corn, too, but that ended when uncle got a 1 row corn picker.
That must have been a long time ago!

Around here, the neighbors always referred to hay loaders as "man killers"

Around here, the neighbors always referred to hay loaders as "man killers"

oh, that brings back memories,..stomping the hay down in the wagon,...nice pic..

I drove the team for dad with one of those loaders. It had the rope and slat type, and I think it was a Minnesota. Last I remember it was in late 40's. Three slings of hay per rack. Then you went into the hay mow and leveled it all out again by hand.

Good photo, but we never could get our hay to stay that green when it dried. LOL

I don"t have a picture to post but will try to come up with one for another post but growing up on a farm in Iowa, like most in those days we had hogs, cattle and we all had work to do on the farm. I remember well putting up loose hay stacks out in the field for the milk cows. Instead of a hay loader we had a "Jayhawk Stacker" (made in Kansas I believe.) Our John Deere A had a bracket that bolted on near the front of the frame with a round pivot out in front that the stacker fastened to. The stacker had a long frame with two wheels about 12 foot apart nearly the same distance forward of the mounting arrangement on the tractor. It was kind of like an overgrown front end loader with long wooden tines and a backstop to keep the hay from coming over the rear. As it would be getting close to full two or three of us boys would get on the hay just before it started being raised to put on the hay stack. when dumped on the pile we would "walk it in" to keep the stack from blowing apart when the wind blew. This was repeated many times until the stack had grown to a size that was as high as the stacker could raise. Then we would slide down the side of the stack and start on the next hay stack. Oh to return to those days of well over 50 years ago.