in the old days how many

barns did you guys fill up with square bales by hand?
In the 60's and 70's we filled up a very big barn that was about 50' by 120' and about 16' high plus whatever up to the peak of the roof. The elevator would be cranked all the way up to the point of the bales rolling back down if you didn't get them on the elevator right.
And we had 4 other barns we filled up, they were about maybe 35' by 60', 30' by 50' something like that and 12' high plus to the peak. (my sizes could be off a tad but you get the point)
Anyhow it really didn't bother me at all, I kinda liked it.
what about you guys?

I/m not sure about the sizes but we used to fill the old post and beam barn and 1/3 of the dairy barn packed and stacked full to the peak inside with rye straw bales. Rest of Dairy barn was filled with Alfalfa bales. Add that to the couple other dairy neighbors and it was ALOT of small squares stacked them days. That was in my teen years. Sure would be nice to remember what the bale count was when all was full.

Old days,,,, I guess thats why I cant find any good help. I still fill our barns by hand. LOL What are you guys useing now a bale stacker? My friend has a New Holland one and it works really well, a tow behind. Forgot how many bales it can pick up at one time. Only problem with it is you have to have the right kind of barn to stack it in. JayinNY

In my part of the South....before we diversified into soybeans, wheat, milo, corn, etc,.......the economy was based on cotton/sharecroppers. When they left the farm(s), there were empty tenant houses everywhere and after we got the barns full, we stacked hay in the empty houses. There would usually be 4-6 rooms and the windows were often gone. UNBELIEVABLY HOT wrestling the bales through those doors and windows. The houses weren't maintained and over time, were torn down or burned; there're mostly all gone. I can count more than 20 that we (my Dad and I) personally tore down on ground we either owned or rented. Sharecropping wasn't a good way of life, but there was always a sadness in tearing the houses down and knowing that they had once been someone's homes..........Our main feed was silage, but we often put up 8 or 10 thousand bales of hay.

Been there done that, Onetime we had some bad hay that was put in damp from a rain shower, spoil and started to smolder talk about a mess throwing down bales to uncover the wet stuff thinking the barn was going to burn if we didn't.

We only had one barn. I don't know the size, but it was big at the time to me. I drug so many square bales to Dad where he would stack them, I thought my arm would pull out of my body. When the bales couldn't be bellied up any higher,Dad had a pulley in the rafters. The rope had two hooks to hook into the bale. The other end of the rope was attached to our Farmall A. I liked that job, because I got to drive the tractor, to pull the bales up. Those were the good days all right. Stan

My dad bought a MM baler in the early 50's we not only filled our barns but did custom bailing all summer. My first job driving a tractor was pulling the rope for the forks to unload the wagons, didn't use a elevator till years later. He got 13 cents a bail and the the workers on the wagon and barn got $1 per/hr.You were lucky to get 1300 bales a day.

You yungans! I can remember stacking loose hay in barn 40'X80' then making hay stacks in feild for rest of hay. We didn't have wagon used sled to haul hay on .

I was one of the young local rascals hired to help fill one monstrous barn to the top by hand. Did it for many summers and that was the only way we were shown.

That was the mid 1960s. The farmer paid us $1.65 an hour and fed us dinner, and we were glad to have it.

I don't miss those days. We used to fill the barn to the peak (28 feet). It sure does get hot up there. Stacking clover bales and sweating sure makes for a dirty job.

I did loose hay for an old timer one summer, wasn't too bad and was always well fed. One day we thought it would be fun to jump from the loft onto the full load of hay. Not a wise choice, the loads were huge and rounded at the top. When I hit the hay it launched me like a trampoline out into the barnyard, darn near killed me, I limped for a week. But used to do about 10000 idiot cubes a summer for my uncle when I was between 12 and 16 years old for 2.00 an hour and three square meals a day. Ahhhhh the good old days.

Our barns held 8000 bales and we custom baled 20,000 to 25,000 for the neighbors every year.

Dad drove and me an another loaded.

Seems like every day the sun was shining in the summeer we were baling somewhere. 500 to 1500 bales a day.

Dad bought a new baler in 62. When it was traded in 70 it had just over 200,000 bales thru it.

Still got the 70 model and only has about 90,000 bales thru it.

The big round bales took over in the early 70's.

Gary

We used to do 5000-6000 for ourselves, and a couple of large fields for others, I can remember all too well what it's like at the other end of the elevator every summer, hot, dusty, scratched up etc. I can remember close calls with the weather, baler problems and all the rest. One of our fields was behind the ford dealership we had, about 11 acres of some really nice timothy and orchard, this was in a huge flat area, that is an aquifier, put a well point in 5 feet and you have unlimited water, was always thick heavy growth and hardly any weeds, this field produced year after year.

We had 2 large barns, + the old garage building at the dealership, enough to store more than we could bale, but my neighbor used to do upwards of 25,000 and used to fill the lower barn,and his place he still to this day marvels at how big the mow was in that one, it was pretty big. A lot of barns not owned by the farmer were put to good use storing hay, as I recall, not too many left today. I've got some old photos to scan of both places, some are in the town history book, near the old tractor place, you can see how big the flat area was before anything was built. In the 40's there was big auction at our place, and it's the only photo I have of both of our barns, I'll have to scan and post them at some point in the future.

My dad ran a custom balerin the 60s averaged 50 thousand bales a year four years straight in his peak i used to get 1dollar an hour or a penny a bale if I was in the barn 2 cents if I loaded the rack myself. best day was 1956 bales loaded myself in one day one very long day.

We had a neighborhood baling ring where one neighbor owned the baler and tractor and the rest of us did the labor and furnished the racks. The owner of the baler and I were the ones on the rack so I didn't see a whole lot of stacking in the barn. We put up maybe 12000 bales of hay and a couple thousand of straw a year on average. This arrangement started in the late 40's with a Case hand wire tie baler, then a 14T Deere came into the scene in probably 1959 pulled by a JD 60 that was replaced by a 730 gas. The 14T was replaced with a 24T in 1966 and a 336 in about 1972. The neighborhood kid who was old enough to drive a baler but not big enough to stack drove the baler for a couple of years until the next kid came along. I must have started driving in 1963 and drove for four years or so, till I 'graduated' to the rack.

The baler owner I worked with was in his upper fifties to maybe sixty at the end of our baling days and I was probably in my middle twenties, but he could outwork me. He was overweight and drank too much beer too! It was humiliating to say the least! Jim

For several years we put up 5000 bales and put them in two old barns. The one barn wasn't too bad since it had the big door at on end and a window at the other. The other barn was a sweat box. The only opening was the 4'x4' hole the elevator put the hay bales thru. I did this with my uncle and sometimes my grandmother helped.

My father-in-law was 61 when I was dating his 15-year-old daughter, and I was 16. He and I were about the same size and I thought I was pretty husky. I was amazed that he could stick with me all day, but he did. Then he went home and milked cows.

First I did it for soda money, then money for dates. Used to work for 5or 6 different farmers all summer long filling their barns.

I'm wondering how many bales a kid could stack these days--that is, if they had a video game for it...

My Grandfather had a custom baling operation, even built his own Hay Monster hay wagons. Link below shows some people with one still in use, ours was similar. You can't see the chain conveyor trough down the middle that brings bales all the way to the rear.

I still have never seen a more efficient way to haul squares. We ran two at one point. Had extensions that could be added to the front elevator. I can't rememebr how many bales could be put on at once, but man they would load that thing up really high.

All day long, everyday, all summer long for probably 15 years. The boys used to bellyache about putting up inside barns, as most in that area had open sided sheds. And I don't know how many they would do in a season, but it was many dozens.

We still have the last one Granddad made at the farm, but it is many years out of use. I'd like to bring it back to service one day, but probably isn't real likely. Watching my Grampa and Uncles build those things from scratch was really something to an 8 year old. Probably to most anyone. Quite the engineer he was, still is.

We're putting a lot of acres to grapes and an orchard this summer. The cow/calf operation just doesn't seem to be very profitable anymore, although we'll keep 60-80 head around for a while. Had a good bean crop this year, but it just pays the taxes. Sad that. When I was young the farm was a hustling, bustling place. Now it's just not the same, so we want to breathe some new life into the place. Grampa's excited at the possibilites. He doesn't like seeing the farm the way it is either. He's 88, and with 3 or 4 years to a grape harvest, he has a goal to still be here for our first harvest, and I hope a few more after that. He's now the 2nd oldest man in the county. This is Chase county KS, where many of the TX cattle came back in the days for grazing and shipment east. Cassody, Bazaar, Matfield Green and Newton are some names you see in some of Louie Lamore's books. It's northeast of Wichita.

Interesting fact. Prior to Prohibition, Kansas was the 2nd or 3rd leading grape producing state in the country. They have been very slow to come out of it, not allowing grape production for wine until 1985. But like all over the midwest, many new vineyards are now popping up. If we can get 10 acres in, we'll be a major player in that part of the country real fast, as most are 3-5 acres. But all seem to be doing well and growing.
Hay Monster