Every summer, starting at age 10, I worked on relative’s ranches near Coalmont, CO (North Park) putting up hay.
These are old school, 110-120 lb wire tie bales. More common now are round bales 6’ in diameter and large square bales that need large equipment to move and stack.
Being a strong lad, I soon went from driving tractors moving and raking hay to busting bales, like 2,000 – 2,200 a day.
Farming today has become so mechanized summer jobs for kids are scarce if they are not family. I think the country is poorer in spirit and appreciation of hard work for it.
There are many worse ag jobs than bucking bales. Thinning beets comes to mind.
Once I was back home, there were the bales from our own 20 acres of hayfields to pickup and store in the barn. We had an old twine tie bailer so those bales were only 80 lbs. Each one had to be tossed onto a flatbed Ford pickup and then you would jump on and off the pickup to stack them six high. At the barn the process was reversed. Labor intensive to be sure.
My sister, nine years younger, would steer the pickup as I walked alongside bucking the bales. The little shit would slowly push on the throttle and I would go from a walk to a trot. Yeah, fun times.
“MOM, he yelled at me!!!!”
Well, no shit.
And I loath this "new and improved" blogger.
18 comments:
Ah, the memories of baling hay. The Johnson Grass bales weren't all that bad but the alfalfa were HEAVY. Baled green with still a lot of moisture in them they were close to 80-90 pounds I'm guessing. Middle of July in North Texas it was hot! Getting the last bales to the top row on the '54 one ton Ford flatbed took some effort. At 12 years old and two dollars a day. Old man Brim sure got his money's worth.
$2 a day! I was getting $.02 a bale plus my Great Aunt's fantastic meals. Unpaid, milking cows and doing shop work when it rained. Not Texas heat, but Colorado sun at 8,000' ASL.
Never had to do that kind of hard labor. The only farm or ranch labor I did was at my cousin's horse ranch in Twin Falls, Idaho.
We ate well, but boy, did we work for it!
And yes, it definitely gives you an appreciation of both hard work, and where your food comes from.
Thankfully, never had to do the wire bales, the twine ones were 'enough'...
drjim
Work is work.
OldNFO
I preferred wire tie despite the extra weight. Twine tied tends to flex and break more often.
Hard work on the hay. My MC (Master of Ceremonies) complained about it on Sunday. "What, don't you have a crew to look after that?" I asked, "Well yeah, but I drive the rig, that's enough." Urrgh, in 100++, rather him than me...
LSP
Doubt I was tough enough for Texas. We got our revenge on Texans in the winter - they couldn't drive in snow for shit.
If you look at the hands of a country kid (at least back when I was) and compared them to the hands of a city kid, you learned all you needed to know about the difference between the two.
We used twine on alfalfa and steel on grass hay (bales weighed a lot more).
LL
Hands. I was a wrestler. When we shook hands before the start I had an idea of what I was up against.
Here in the Northeast, farmers can't find anyone willing to buck hay. Which is why all the hay is put up in round bales now. With the tractor the farmer can put up the hay alone. Sad really.
Diane
I don't understand why WSF still brings up my driving in the hay field after all of these years. Yes, I might have dumped a whole load of hay off of the truck going through the big irrigation ditch, yes I might have dumped him off the end of the pickup after speeding through the hay field with he and Dad on the back and then slamming on the brakes when I got to the gate. I still don't understand why he got upset and still blames things on me. I was just learning to drive and spend quality time with my Bruvver.
You do have a way with word, don't you!
You can tell a lot about a man by looking at his hands. They tell the story of his life, and how he earned it.
So the difference in the weight of the bales is due to the type of binding on them? Or are the wire-bound bales heavier because the strength of the binding allows them to be larger? We didn't grow much alfalfa in Illinois where I lived. Just corn and soybeans, and a few other vegetable crops.
I have to admit it was fun watching the guys at the Greeley Farm Show pitching cut hay/grass off a flat-bed into the baler, and watching the bales come out the other end.
drjim
Never did alfalfa, thankfully. Nasty stuff.
The farm show shows a lot of pre WWII methods.
I thought most of what went for "hay" was alfalfa?
Oh, well....never was a real farm kid, so I don't really know squat!
I too bucked hay during the summer, there was the machine that made the square bales, but lifting those 100 pound units onto the following trailer required teenage muscle. I did not particularly like doing it all day. In fact, I hated it. But it builds character, not to mention muscle.
I also picked beans, and the farmer who owned the farm also owned some beat up 'bean busses' that would stop in our neighborhood and take us out to the bean fields. Then, some 'migrant farm workers' started showing up on their own, could pick four times the beans in a day that us shiftless teenagers could, and got to the bean fields on their own, no need to ride the bean bus.
A year or two after that, late 190's, those bean busses stopped picking us up; us teenagers were unemployed. Where was Donald Trump back then when we needed him?
Late 1960s.
Fredd
Those migrants have my deepest admiration for their work ethic and ability. Working for relatives, I couldn't be a slacker - family shame is a powerful motivator.
drjim
Lots of different plant material is bailed. Straw and corn stalks comes to mind. My experience is exclusive native mountain grass hay.
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