Nice one,Possum.Thanks.It certainly brings back memories for me from the early 1970s,when I worked for a haybaling contractor.In those days, each bale of hay had to weigh 70lb (32kg) when it was removed from the haybarn,ready to be fed to the livestock,so it was heavier when it was stacked.Haybaler was a New Holland 282,and we would bale 500 bales per hour,or just over 7 seconds per bale.Best result was 6320 bales in two days,spread over several different properties.Once the dew started to set in,we had to stop baling,but we then worked into the early hours of the next morning picking up the bales and puttiing them into the various farmers' haybarns.Several times we cut hay,and baled it on the same day...long hours,at $1.50/hour,flat rate! People were not scared of hard work in those days.Cheers
P.S The baler in this photo could be a New Holland 268?
-- Edited by yobarr on Saturday 10th of April 2021 12:22:05 PM
Great shot,Kerry.The tractor is a Fordson E27N,which had the clutch pedal on the right hand side,and the two brake pedals,used for steering,on the left.Those tractors were not live-drive,so useless for haybaling unless the baler had its own engine,which appears to be the case here.Never heard of the baler,but it has the same conveyor belt feed as a New Holland 76,which had a Twin cylinder Wisconsin motor,usually crank-start. Frequently the crank handle would jam on the shaft as the engine started,and you would have to take cover,because when it came free it would fly for miles! Cheers
-- Edited by yobarr on Saturday 10th of April 2021 01:30:13 PM
It's where I learned to drive (age 5) steering an old Austin truck loading hay - graduated to tractor (age 7- 8), when I could reach clutch pedal - Age 12 I was loading bales and dumped bales of wool - Hard work yep, but loved it.
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Possum; AKA:- Ali El-Aziz Mohamed Gundawiathan
Sent from my imperial66 typewriter using carrier pigeon, message sticks and smoke signals.
Cliff and Bunting were a successful Melbourne based Engineering Company .....this is a pic. of a restored C and B baler (standard 4 cyl. Wisconsin engine) - Very popular baler in Western Victoria.
Most if not all used hand tied wire on the bales rather than string. We used to press them at 28 bales to the ton as this was the most economical weight for rail and road transport.
It's where I learned to drive (age 5) steering an old Austin truck loading hay - graduated to tractor (age 7- 8), when I could reach clutch pedal - Age 12 I was loading bales and dumped bales of wool - Hard work yep, but loved it.
Seems we had similar lives,Possum? I learned to drive on a Gold Belly Ferguson 35 with a 5' rotary slasher behind it.The Old Man let me loose slashing rushes etc,and once I'd mastered that I graduated to an old Austin truck,with a 16' deck,which we used to hand-load hay onto.By the time I was 17,I could get the 70lb bales up to the fifth tier,where the fella on the truck would reach over to grab them.We stacked 7 tiers high,and never had to use ropes to hold the load on.Wool bales were a different story though! Cheers
-- Edited by yobarr on Saturday 10th of April 2021 02:22:02 PM
Cliff and Bunting were a successful Melbourne based Engineering Company .....this is a pic. of a restored C and B baler (standard 4 cyl. Wisconsin engine) - Very popular baler in Western Victoria.
Most if not all used hand tied wire on the bales rather than string. We used to press them at 28 bales to the ton as this was the most economical weight for rail and road transport.
Nice old baler Kerry.Interesting you state "28 bales to the ton",as this is 80lb/bale harvested weight,which would equate to around 70lb dry weight.The old 76 we had was fully automatic,tying with the old green baling twine.The bill-hook seemed to always give us grief though.Cheers.
Good observation Paul.That can be done only when there is a "tail gate" to support the bales.We never used tail gates,but we never loaded straight off the baler either...WAAAAY too slow doing it that way.Cheers
1967 onwards, bare hands and green baling twine and rashes on the inside of your arms...argh memories. The warm long neck bottle of beer at days end got skulled.
1967 onwards, bare hands and green baling twine and rashes on the inside of your arms...argh memories. The warm long neck bottle of beer at days end got skulled.
"The warm long neck bottle of beer"...now THAT brings back memories,the beer sometimes so hot that it was hard to even hold the bottle! Didn't matter...it was beer,wasn't it? Cheers
I used to help my grandfather " feed out " Herefords off the back of a horse drawn cart, maybe start with 30 small bales. We had to make sure that the baling twine was cut right beside the knot, so that the twine was suitable for reuse. Halters etc. Bad cess us if we cut in the middle of the loop.
