Yes I forgot a nick name of the devise was "Booker harrowbed". And Harrowbed was what got tacked on the New Holland automatic bale pickup wagon way way back in 196x when ever it was new. There was something about the first initial in all the daughters names of the man that invented the whole shebang  after they would not load another bale for poor old dad. An about the Booker brothers,2 orphans from the city taken in by a old couple with no kids. Did nothing but work 18 to 20 hour days an play a little softball till they were up in there 60's. An no women for them they cost too much money. Died owning 1500 to 2000 acres of the best farm land around,some to distant cousins of the parents and the rest to Salvation Army. An another thing about the Booker's it was said they could of planted the pavement in the freeway an  they would of had the best crop around.    

Another foot note it was confirmed more or less about the Harrowbed name and the daughters names has it's roots in the truth. Cause one of the Red tractor guys lives in the same county where the Harrowbed came to life in a farm shop.   Confirmed that he had heard that story many time and nobody questioned it there.   

If any body has other things that are old time or regional about picking hay up out of the field i would be interested. Cause seeing other parts of the world from my easy chair is a big part of the fun of all this  tractor porn. Oh Shameless you are banned unless you got a picture of something farm related. Cause you would bless us with way more of your pink................. well we don't want to know about that.

Ray......there is more to a hay monster.

Pickup snout on a hay monster mounts up front in the middle. Hay bales are delivered to a channel or tray that runs down the center of the bed......hay bales ride along that tray on top of two roller chains. Bales then move to the back of the wagon to the stackers......one on either side. They are picked from the shallow tray, turned 90 degrees and set down. Normal stack height for short hauls is 3 wide, 3 high.....with two on top to tie the stack together. So no real heavy lifting.......just a quick shuffle.

When the load is full......which is normally about 150 bales........its off to the barn....nearby or distant. Rig can cruise down the road at 30 to 40 mph.......it is on a truck chassis afterall.

At the barn, hydraulic motor that runs the drag chains is reversed......driver moves to the back......pulls bales off the truck and sets them in the tray on the drag chains. Guys who were on the back now move to the stack in the barn......snout up front becomes an elevator......so bales ride up that to the stop of the stack. Can shoot them about 8 high........or to a barn loft window. Has an optional snout extension, so will shoot them higher still if need be. Guys in the barn are moving them around on top of the stack, but no bucking up required. Still, stacking in the barn is the bottleneck and only hard part of the operation.

These do require a minimum crew of 2 and 3 are better, but what these do is allow you to leverage available labor to it's fullest extent.

Back when, we had crews using both....... 3 guys on a hay monster could move just about double what a crew of 3 could do with a truck and pop up loader.

The best alternative to one of these might be a NH stack liner.......one of 3 sizes or versions........and if you are setup for them (right barn, close hauls, etc), they would work........provided you get it set right, know how to maintain it and use it. I ruled those out as I'm selling small squares to local buyers who may be scattered as far away as 10 miles........and who still stack hay in small loft barns, or odd sized holes in existing barns. I charge enough for the hay (last was $8 for a 50# bale of grass hay) that I can afford to pay the labor enough to get them to show up and work.

If the hay crew gets after it, it equates to around $30 to $45 per hour.......and they can do that after 5 when they get off their regular day labor jobs that don't pay half that.

OK, this is what a hay monster looks like in full fighting trim.

Have had help the past two days, and we have installed a new wiring harness for the ignition and all new gauges. Got the front snout off the deck and installed and working.

Even pulled a few old square bales off the stack and scattered them around to see if she would pick them up and she did. Looks a bit scruffy from years of neglect, but beauty is as beauty does and she is working as intended. New coat of paint someday will do wonders.

Another view of the business end........keep in mind this is 1970 technology and this particular example has been rode hard and put away wet more than a few times.......

I don't mind loading the truck, if I have a good driver.   
The part I do not like is stacking in the barn.  We do not have a bale elevator.  

Unlike most people, we do not use a hay hook.  My dad did not allow us to use one while hauling hay.  

If someone would like to start a "Go Fund Me" account for me, I would be set.  Only need $255,000 for a 'Bale-Barron'.

Update on the Hay Monster.......

Put 260 bales down the other day for a test........had first 150 bales off the ground and stacked in the barn in one hour flat.

Neighbor wanted about 50 bales for his hay burners......so after picking up remaining 110 bales.....we cruised over to his place at about 20 mph.......stuck the nose of the front chute in his barn door and dumped bales off right where he stacks them. Rest are going to a different neighbor.......he stacks his in a loft......will shoot them up to him to be stacked. 

Had 3 kids riding on the back......they were able to keep up stacking on the monster while picking up.....but they had their hands full on top of the stack. I was unloading on the truck and all I had to do was keep dropping bales in the tray. Bales ride the chains going forward and front chute raises up to become elevator to top of the stack.

BTW......tarps on the hay are because roof leaks pretty bad......rubber seals on nails mostly gone after 50 years. Just to the left of JD sickle bar mower is where D15 sat waiting for me for 20 years.....same D15 used to rake all this hay.

 

We had 2.  Well, still have them, but not in use.  One of them unloaded directly onto the conveyor that went up into the loft.  Worked pretty slick when all was working well.......which wasn't all the time! LOL!

I understand the trap. I will try for more pictures soon from my end.

shameless dude wrote: I always laughed when the city bots asked me if their kid could come and help with picking up hay bales. sure I said, and always told them to bring gloves! they'd show up in foot thongs, shorts, and brown jersey gloves. they'd never come back a second day! LOL

,,,That must of been ME you are tsalkin bout,,Shameless,,,,,,

 I was tryin to get a date with this great lookin girl, whose father was a hay hauler and one time i was at her house when her father asks me if I had ever held a job and I told him, her mother and her that I was workin at the Chevrolet dealer after school and half day on Saturdays and been doin that for 3 years,,,!! He says,,"I want to see if you can do REAL work, so you be here at 6AM and we'll see if you know how to really work" I figure if I'm ever gonna get my foot in the door with him(and the daughter),,I'm gonna have to show em,!!  The next day will forever be burned in my memory,,,,,I had never handled hay bales,,,but ,,what could be so difficult bout pickin them " Little ole hay bales up"up and puttin them on the trk,,?? Right off the bat he tells me he's gonna stack,,so I can load em,,easy as pie,,I'm thinkin,,chit the trk bed ain't THAT high,,!!

CHIT,,,it'd take me a few trys to get the bale up on the trk bed and wound up bustin some of the bales up cause of them fallin off the dang trk several times. He would get down off the trk, show me how EASY it was to "kick and throw" them bales up thar,,chit anybody can do that,,right,,?? The first hour of him gettin down, throwin some on trk, gettin on trk AND stacking em,,only to have to do it all over again a few minutes later,,Gosh,,,he must be gettin tired long bout now,,,,!!!

 Not even two hours later,,trk was barely 6 high and he was so friggin tired and mad he tells me ,,,"Get all you chit rounded up cause I'm takin you home,,,!!" He took me straight home,,didn't even let me help him UNLOAD the trk,!!  I gave up tryin to date that girl,,,figured there was NO Way he was gonna let me in their house,,,,,,,Oh,,and by the way,,,,she's been married 3 times,,,maybe 4,,,,

Never thought about it much, but having seen a bunch of folks handle small square hay bales in the past few years.......am beginning to realize hauling hay is all about attitude.

I hired 3 kids earlier this summer.....only 340 bales.......they arrived at 5 PM.....and we started in. Last load went into the barn at 10:30 and was left on the trailer. They were exhausted and I had already concluded those boys didn't have the knack and wouldn't have them back even if they wanted to, which they didn't.

For this last go round......called my cousin's grandson......(as an aside.....his grandfather was on hay crews that worked for us 50 years ago)......and he shows up with friend and a girlfriend. I thought girlfriend was just there for moral support.......not so.....she was hauling too and was good at it. She took every third bale......and they were running 50 to 55 pounds.......and she was still at it at the end.

Got a young man coming later today to pickup a few small squares to feed his nags while they are on the road. He claims to have worked on a large horse farm.....has bucked a lot of bales and hates it with passion. On a daily basis while at home.....he feeds larger bales that don't have to be touched by human hands.

Lady down the road......who is over 70.....only want's small square bales and feeds them herself.

Got two gents in their 60's who will handle the small squares themselves......one claims he has to buck his up into a loft window and does it all by himself.

So it's all about attitude.

shameless dude wrote: LMAO @ Joe!!! yep Joe...you was think'in with the wrong head! (poke,poke)

  Yep,,Shameless,,,,, thas always been my problem,,,and I'm thinkin it been yours and way many men before us,,,,,,

 And ,,,one thing I have decided,,the skinnier you are ,,the better you can handle them bales,,,,My Uncle who couldn't have ever weighed more than 114# and 5'10 3/16" could flat outload anybody in these parts and make the best stacker earn his keep. He would try to show me it all in the knee and shoulders,,,then for good measure just get his hay hooks and he'd have thet bale up in the bed of the trk before quick could get ready,,,,all the time while he was talkin  and never break a sweat,,,,un-friggin-believable,,,,

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 Hey Good Buddy,,,one question that I'm sure everybody here has got,,,,Does thet dime store cowboy ever actually ride them hosses,,,???? Maybe just at the parades,,???

 Bout 5 years ago,,,,My neighbor across the street bought a nice lookin stud Buckskin  that looked to be 1-2 years old and thet sob was just plumb full of vim and vinegar,,I'm talkin bout the horse,,OK,,??

 Anyway,,bout a month or so went by and I never seen him try to mount the horse til one day,,they had em a shindig or birthday goin on,,anyway,,they was a few peoples over there and after a few beers ,,,he decides to show them city folks how the country folks do their business and after fightin the hoss tryin to get the saddle on,,,he finally gets in the saddle and,,,,and,,,,the horse takes a few jumps and with the greatest of ease bucks the neighbor off ,,,who lands on his face,,,,on the rocks.(he gots rocks too) all the troops is scaird and yellin and run over to him,,,who by the way ,,,AIN'T MOVED all this time,,,,,,somebody finally splashes a beer on his face and he comes to,,,Chit,,I thought they was gonna have to call the ambulance cause he on the ground and not even tryin to get up,,!! I was fixin to go over there when he finally gets up and they carry him inside his house. I figured he went inside to get his gun but pretty soon everybody leaves and the party is over,,!!

 I really thought he was gonna get rid of the horse THEN ,,,,but the horse is STILL there eatin lots of hay every day all the time and horse ain't ever been rode,,,,cause the dude never tried again,,!!!

Do they ever ride their hay burners? Some do......some don't.

Place we live now was built by a couple.....she wanted horses. He told me she sat on a horse about as well as a bowling ball......fell off both times she tried to ride one. Got rid of horses and sold the place shortly after. Horse barn they built is where I store hay and the hay baler.

Lady down the road was making fun of lady next door......calling her nags "yard ornaments"........which I thought was kinda funny......as she has one that nobody ever rides either......a high spirited Arabian I refer to as a crotch rocket.

One set of neighbors used to rodeo......they roped all over the Midwest and Texas and daughter won a lot of ribbons barrel racing.....but kids are grown and have moved on. Horses still grazing and eating hay. Another neighbor down the road won some kind of belt buckle earlier this summer on a cutting horse. Another down the road has "high tales"......gated horses that in my mind wouldn't be good for much other than dog food.

Another lady has a pacing mule she takes on trail rides in the Ozarks. One guy has a whole hillside full of donkeys. All of it hobby stuff and I can't think of anyone who actually has a horse that is put to anything truly useful*.

Good news is the owners all have money and the horses all eat hay!!!!

* Watched an Amish lad mowing the lawn with a draft horse pulling a reel type mower the other day. That was impressive. Dang near as manuverable as a zero turn mower.

And yes I grow the dang old hay so I know its not free ether. Kind of like having a dog around,just another very worthless pet.

But................but  now I helped side track my own story that was about the hay not the horse.

Shameless what happened to your hospitality  you could of told guy the redneck way of unloading the truck. You know fast reverse and then lots of brake. Nothing to it bed empties every time.

Here's a New Holland model at auction in MT.

https://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/aucitsrh/?sl=71QSCI19647005" rel="nofollow - https://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/aucitsrh/?sl=71QSCI19647005

 Well,,,,,the neighbor across the street ain't the only'ist one around here that keeps horses for a status symbal,,,they's lots of them dime store cowboys out here and thing is some of them prolly have to miss some meals of their own cause of havin to feed them horses,,,,just cannot figure that one out,,,chit them hosses ain'nt even good guard animals,,,,,,,,

 Now havin said all that,,,I LIKE the "thought" of horses and,,,,and,,,many, many times when we was draggin some game out of the forest,,,I always been wishin we had some horses,,,but I ain't gonna feed them all year for a couple of hours of work outa them,,,,,,,

 

OK I'm done.

Talked to a local guy who used one of those last summer......told me they did 2,000 bales in one day with one. It kept up with 2 JD 336 balers. That would be impressive.

Downside is the barn you are stacking in has to be setup for one. And not sure how they protect the bottom layer if stacking on dirt or cement.

Heard a guy comment a few years ago about going to horse auctions in MO Ozarks......this was about 5 years ago.

Said if you took a trailer to a horse auction you had to put a padlock on it before you went inside......otherwise, you might come out and find horses in it........now they were your problem.

Anyway.....comment first struck me as funny......but then not so much.

Ooops......meant to include John's link to the stackliner.

We could get that thing going..........

 Well,,,Shameless,,,,as I said before,,,,"I Like Horses",,,,but,,,,but,,,,I rather like to look at em in somebody elses yards,,,,

  EVEN THO,,,I still gots a scar that is STILL bout 3/8" wide and 8" long on my upper right thigh that was caused by a danged horse when I was bout 12 years old. I was always a sucker for a dare to try and ride a horse that the farm owner had. None of my other brothers could stay on that gray but "I bet you can't get on ole Gray today" was usually enough to get me to try yet again,,,,, Thet sob tried to bite me many times, he did.

The scar happened one day when the horse was on the other side of the reservior and he was havin himself a bad day and when he seen me playin in the reservoir,,,,HERE HE COMES,,,!  Thet sob jumped in the water and started to swim across the reservoir to get at me,,,I started swimming for the house and it was a pretty good race til I got to the fence and did NOT make the first jump and here comes thet danged horse neighing all the time,,,!!! The second jump is when I got hung up on the top strand of the friggin barbed wire fence,,,!!! I must of been screamin cause here comes my Dad, Mom and two of my brothers and finally run the friggin horse off and get me off the fence. I remember my Mom puttin some kind of country herbs and wrapping the leg up with sheets to stop the bleeding. I never was much for wearin shorts cause of thet big old scar,,,,,,,,,and I still like horses,,,,,,,

shameless dude wrote: Thad and me would have sat down fence of ya and laughed! that would have been a good beer drink'in sight to watch!

  Well,,,you wouldn't been the only'ist ones laughin at me,,!!! Thas the reason my brothers would dare me to get on that mean horse,,,,livin out in the country,,with nuttin to do,,I usually provided the entertainment for them,,,,,,,,,

Chit,,there was another time he let me get on him and he waited til I was settin comfortable,,,then,,,then,,the sob took off like a rocket,,,chit it was all I could do just to hang on to the mane,,,he took me to the far corner of the pasture,,,,and done a couple of Bubba Gumps all over thet pasture til he bucked me off,,,,you guessed it,,,at the farthest corner from the house.

 I was sure glad when some people from a rodeo come and took his azz away,,,him buckin and snortin and neighin all the time,,,he musta known he wouldn't have ole Joe to torment any more,,,,,,

  Last week you were looking how to keep the water for the first chicky warm,so  why not have some more.

 

 

 But I hide from the camera,as well as my Wonderful. That is Ed running what are always called the "hay squeeze" all over the west. O'l Ed and his brother started hauling hay in high school and they never quit. But they started with a side loader elevator like I started this whole mess with. But Ed had his wife June to spot for him as there is a lot you don't see from the operator's seat. I don't know  how many places build hay squeeze's today. Cause there was a big brew haa haa between a Calif and Oregon companies that both wanted to be Road Runner hay squeeze. But this one was built by Ed. The mast was appropriated  from a big forklift, and a bunch of a truck tractor parts under there. I the one you can see a steering wheel behind Ed, that is where you drive to go down the road at better than 70 MPH.

But with a  bit of luck not one bale had to be touched by anybody's hand to fill my barn on Tuesday.Oh yes June use to be the main operator of the squeeze and Ed drove a truck tractor and 2 trailers with 7 of the hay blocks on it. But June has slowed down a bit lately.

The hay needs a tarp on the south and west side where the rain comes from. But now I have think about loading the bales when it's feeding time. But it's better to have and not need, than need and not have. So the nice 100+ lb bales in the barn with  no hands touching them, well at least 80+% were never touched. Yes if my place was leveler and smother you can get close 99% no hands.

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