Compacted hay stacks.

[alleyyooper]

Back in the early 1970's there was a machine mostly composed of a wagon with hrydlics that compressed hay that was blown into it.

A friends dad had a fellow with one such come and do custom hay at his farm. once the wagon was full there was a chain with spikes that would move thr stack of hay out of the wagon and it would look like a loaf of bread in thre field. the wagon could also be backed up to the stack and reload it into the wagon and move iot to where ever the farmer wanted it.

My friends dad had a couple of these hay knifes and made one long one out of the two.

He would get up on the hay stack and cut a chunk off. Use thre front loader on his tractor with the manure times to move that chink to feed bunks.



Worked well for putting a lot of hay up in a short time and could be fed easy.
But it fell out of favor very quick when the big round balers came out a year or two later.

Today I am not even able to find a picture of the hay stack in a field.

Al

 

[Toomanytoys84]

Was it like a big hay press?

I seen a machine at a fair one year that was in a wagon. the hay was laid in the wagon, then for lack of a better term, a board was pressed down onto the hay and it compressed into a long square bail. But it wasn't huge, it was more like 3x3 or 2x2?

I'm not a farmer, nor really been around much other than helping with square bails for cash as a teenager.

 

[alleyyooper]

OH it was big real big. Remember the straw piles after they threashed before combines? it was like that. Made me think of a giant loaf of bread. I'd say about 10' wide 25' long and 8' to 10'. High.


Al

 

[Cvans]

Your right Al they were big and most of those trailers around here were red. Hay loafer by Hesston. I think handling the hay after it was put up was their biggest downfall. The the Round bales added to their death.

 

[alleyyooper]

Yes that looks like it. I wonder if there were any around now?

Yes the moving after was a problem the round bales solved.

Al

 

[Cvans]

It been years since I've seen any in use but I think I know where two are setting in the trees.

 

[JDJake]

The place where my cousin works they turned two of them into leaf rakes/compactors.

 

[alleyyooper]

I thought there were prettyt neat.


Al

 

[adamjd200]

There's one nearby on an old farm along with a lot of other equipment, owner won't sell anything, no longer farms and thinks it's all worth a fortune, some neat stuff just rusting away, sadly it's common around here.