Deere Half Size Square Bales?????

Reading from my baler capacity post below and some other
posts, it sounds like some (for lack of a better word) simply put
their square bales in the barn like dumping gravel in a pile - no
stackinging in the barn. In no way am I saying that is bad at
all, but it reminded me (I am almost 100% certain) of an add in
an old Progressive Farmer in the '70's

I would almost bet the farm that John Deere was promoting
making half size bales of hay so that you could put them on an
hay conveyor and drop the cubes into the mow. There was a
pic of this I remember.

Does this ring a bell with anyone?

It seemed like Deere was (in the add) promoting it as the way
to efficiently make hay.

I see many of these square balers will make a square bale
from 12" to 52" - not sure why someone would make a 12"
long bale?

To bring this to the present, I went to a horse show this past
summer and chatted with the owners about what they liked in
hay and low and behold, one lady was using half sized bales,
18" x 18". I've heard and seen making 30ish inch long
squares coming in at 35-40 lbs for the horse folks but until last
summer never saw a half size bale of hay. I'm sure the lady
paid a premium for it!

So you got a baler with a kicker, like a John Deere, pulling a
hay rack with sides for throwing hay into it, the cube size bale
surely would roll around and locate itself better than a 36 inch
long bale, possibly getting more tonnage into the wagon. You
get back to the mow, off load the cubes into the barn via a
conveyor, they drop, roll around and find/fit better than the long
squares - more tonnage in the barn. If a full sized bale
weighed 60 lbs and a half sized one weighted 30, maybe
everyone's back got a break.

I can see the advertising logic that might make Deere pitch the
idea. Practically maybe not such a good idea?

Anyone done this? Anyone remember Deere
advertising/recommending half size bales from back in the
70's?

One other OT question - huge old barns.

Our barn was built over 100 years ago. It was designed for
loose hay and back in the 70's, we had family stuffing it full to
the peak of the roof. It didn't take much of that to cause it to
break/crumble (along with groundhogs undermining the
foundation). I can still stack a bit of hay in it to get it out of the
weather, but the barn is to far gone to save.

These huge barns you see in pics or out traveling, old dairy
barns and such, I gather their magnitude was driven by the
shear volume of loose hay - from back in the day before
square balers came along, not unlike our old barn.

When you folks are dumping your hay into a barn - I assume it
is an old barn designed (and huge) for loose hay?

Just curious.

Thanks!
Bill

Actually that system dates to the late 50s when Deere decided to come up with a system to compete with A-C's roto-bales, by introducing a thrower for the 14T baler. It didn't work like the later pan throwers. It had arms that grabbed the bale and threw them up a curved ramp. It would only work with little bales. You could throw them into a rear unloading silage wagon and have it slowly pull them to the elevator. You could use a sheaf fork from the threshing days to guide those bales into the elevator. (Deere made an elevator at the time with a top rail over the chains to hold those sloppy little bales on). Mow conveyor was set to dump bales in a pile in the barn, making use of those giant loose-hay mows. If you fed all your hay, it worked, but it wasn't a system workable for selling hay. It used a lot of twine compared to larger bales, as well.

Bill: Tim explained it well; It was the time in farming when mechanization was beginning to replace , very hard to find & pay, hired labor.... My Dad & I together with a neighbor bought JD (one man haying sys. ) new for 59" hay baling season.. We shared the baler and outside elev. and rear ratchet unload silage boxes we already shared; till No.2 & later No. 30 Bale thowers came out in later 60s" & 70s"... Pic to look at...

I had one of those JD 14-T with a thrower on it. It made A half bale due to the fact if it was a full bale it would fall apart when it hit from being thrown. One still had to either not care how they loaded or had to stop from time to time to stack them. Still remember a bunch of church kids that wanted to help me so they rode on the wagon and stacked them as they flew. Once in a while they would not listen and the bale would get one of them but they all where having a good time

I remember back in the 70's a neighbor had a machine that made dry hay "cubes." Don't remember who made it, think it was a short line company not a major line. the thinking was on the same principle as the short bales. handle them more like silage than than ordinary bales. Think they were about the size of a football. Never saw it work. There was a short article in the local paper about it. Don't know if it worked or not. He died shortly after that and the machine wasn't on his auction. Anybody remember anything like that around?

Yup, stack or dump with elevator or used to use the hay trolley to dump bales in the big old upstairsof the barn.

Dad put a few metal beams from a railroad car in to help support the extra load, and if see one spot with extra span sagged a little, but man those floorboards and 2x12 and beams have beed there for about a century now, holding a heck of a load in manure and moisture and wind.....

The hay trolley originally took the loose hay off the hayrack with 2 long prongs and ran it up and to the left or right.

When switched to bales, an 8 bale fork was put on instead to grab 8 bales at a time and run them to either side. You could get 10 bales at a time if you stacked 2 end wise down the middle. You also needed to stack 3 or 4 bales high by hand where the bales dropped, or they would go through the floor.....

Don't remember the. 1/2 size bale deal JD had.

Paul

Our neighbor had a mowveyor and put his regular sized bales up without stacking them.
I ran a lot of bales up in that barn that were never touched again till being thrown down for feeding.

I can't see the draw of half size bales. Lots of extra work and twine. But then again horse folks aren't known for critical thinking sometimes.

I remember in about '60 or '61 Deere developed a hay cuber that made tiny cubes, pressed together till hard like brick bats. I seem to remember them being two inches square and three to four inches long. The idea was that they could be handled with ear corn handling equipment.

The idea and equipment never got out of the development stage. Think I read about it in a FURROW magazine.

The half size bales did not take on around here. Have all sales lit on them. Actually the throwers did not come till after that was forgotton so that made a difference there. Now as for why you would want something like that if you are a big strong guy that can handle a hundred pounds or 2 hundred pounds with out problems then they are not for you but you need to realize that for a lot of men even as well as ladies we cannot even handle 40 pounds without problems. And so the smaller bales even tho extra twine make it so we can still do the feeding. Back in the early 70's we shortened up the baler from the factory 36" setting to the shortest 30" setting as those 36" were getting to heavy to handle. And when we went to different baler we went to a 24-26" bale both for ease of handling and to keep bales from comming apart on wagon. And if you have to wonder why the short bales would be wanted then you must be extra strong and healthy.

"The idea and equipment never got out of the development stage."

Actually, they made and sold some hundreds of the things.
DDA powered

when growing up dad ran one just like in picture, we had five wagons rigged up with high sides. elevatord them into barn and fellinto piles. did it that way for years. animals never complained about the hay. bale were around 30" long if remember correct. when i used to sell hay straw personally i did a lot of halloween cubes called them they were 16"x16". they were more valuable than a straight bale of alfalfa. i used bale basket wagons in that time frame. bales i did for several years were 30lbs max tried for very popular since most of the client for buying hay is ladies.

Lundell Mfg in Cherokee Ia made a hay cuber for a while. They also made wagon hoists and wagon gears and boxes,

Bill , I have posted a couple times on your thread . Our barn was built in 1960 . 36 x 90 for 36 cows . Mow is 22 feet to peak with arched rafters . My bales are about 36 " long . When we used to milk cows we had a conveyor the entire length but was sold with the cows in 86 . Now I have a 24 foot on an incline which I reach with my 48 footer . We can drop 4 or 500 before we need to stack . With the old system we could smash 1000 bales a day in with 2 people . Next day stack some make sure you had room for next run . Worked good but still not easy . I think the perfect square bale system is the auto bale wagon and pole shed , no manual labor , just maintenance . Oh and we just kick on wagons , no stacking.

From the time Dad bought his first baler until now we and I stacked bales by hand. However my Grand Son put my farm to hay August. I was going to bring my NH baler up to the farm for my horse hay. All he has now is the big square and big round balers. He informed me Christmas Day that he plans on making short bales with his big square baler for my horses. I can't lift much more than 40 pounds anymore so I am not sure how that will work. I was thinking half size with my NH 277. Old weak horse men and small women horse people will pay for more string to be able to do what they love. Not many young strong men watch TV from a solid wooden rocking chair.

I made a bunch of little ones this year (by accident) however they were such a success I am planning on bailing them all little next year!!

These ones were about 25-30 long, and about 30 lbs. I put them for sale online, and had a sea of people beating my door down for them literally within an hour! I sold 50 of them for $175, $3.50 a bale... SCORE!

Lady was in her 70's and wanted them for her horse, infact she was so happy with them, she said that she would promise to buy them again next year if I had more... YES MA'AM!!!

how much extra twine do you think the half size bales would use per bale? the height of the bales x two? and the two extra knots too. Bill

when deere came out with their version of the kicker baler they had a movie touting that now one man could bale the hay and put in the barn. Movie showed full size bales dropping willy nilly in the hay loft. wonder how hard it was to move them once they were in a heap like that. Bill

Very Hard, tried that using the hay fork to put them in mow first year had baler, next year had an elevator and stacked them. Later in rented farm barn had to use the fork and same problem, got widow that owned farm to agree to cut in a door for elevator and got rid of the droped bale problem. It is on same principal as the bales in kick bale wagon, you have to pull bales from top before you can get bottom bales out due to weight on top of them. And crawling on top of pile is no fun.

Depends on how you look at it I guess. Wasn't as esay as throwing stacked layers down the chutes, but if you opened up an area around the hay chute first you could grab into a stratigically placed bale on the bottom with a bale hook and bring down 15-20 bales at a time just like you did on the wagons. Tended to have more broken bales to have to throw down with a fork than with stacked bales. Took a whole lot less labor to tumble them in than satck, that's for sure.

Back in the late 50's/early 60's, maybe, that cubed and waferd hay was being touted as a less labor intensive way to put up hay???? New Holland put out a publication titled, "Grassland Farming" back then and I seem to remember something in there about cubed and wafered hay.

New Holland 77 made 18 inch bales if you wanted it to. I don't know if they promoted the 18" or not.

Thanks everyone!

Good thing I didn't bet the farm on the '70s being the time period for the half sized bales - LOL.

I thought I'd seen the half size bales advertised somewhere - thanks for showing me where and why the intent of them.

Thanks,
Bill

I like to make some half sized bales for the kids to feed the rabbits during the winter. It is easier for them to handle, and it makes less mess for them to clean up.

They are cute little bales. When someone comes to buy hay, I sell the half size ones for the same as the full size bales. In the stores, you can buy small bags of hay for rabbits and other small animals for like $14. My half size bales would fill them bags probably 5 times. And mine go for $5.00 typically.