Baling straw pics

JD John

Member
Grandpa and cousin baling straw sometime in the late 50's. Don't know why they didn't pull wagon behind the baler, sure seems like it would be easier.
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I like the new Holland baler! Those engines were horrible to start once they got hot. I'm glad you have all these pictures. I don't have a single picture of our family doing the farm work. It really is so neat to see.
 
Dad had one of those old New Holland 77s. He never pulled a wagon behind that one either. I don't know if it even had a hitch. I know it didn't have a wagon chute. They made a heck of a long bale and you couldn't shorten them up either.
God help you if you ever killed the engine on that thing. He used to carry a long belt and if he had to start it hot,he'd take the belts off and use the tractor pulley to start it.
 
I remember when I was a kid (early 50's) a neighbor came and baled for us with a similar baler-- but a second man had to ride on the baler and tie (I think it was wire) the bales.
 
My grandfather had the same baler only pto driven back in the fifties. I was always intimidated and scared of that big plunger going straight up and down on top. I was just a kid but didn't like getting to close to it.
 
I don't pull the wagon behind the baler either. Tried it many times but the kids won't stack the bales as long as I am moving. They hate the movement and worry about being pitched off if I hit a chuck hole.
 
Dad had an AC Roto-Baler, so he pitched bales onto the wagon while I drove, older sister stacked. Bugged me when she scratched her nose with the bale hook, just to pzz me off! Ewww!
 
Goes faster not pulling wagon and no hay dust for people on wagon. We had a device that would attach to side of flat bed truck that would pick up hay and lift it about 5 ft above bed of truck. We hauled our hay a long distance. Some had to make sure bails were in a straight line.
 
You Fellas sure have a good memory on how hard those Wisconsin air cooled engines were to start when hot. I have seen them running idle during lunch hour just for that reason.
 
My Dad bought a New Holland 77 new, I think it was a 52, I was pretty young, he did custom hay baling and also did custom threshing yet at that time. He cut a hole in the top of the 77 and fastened a 55 gallon barrel with both ends cut out of course and would blow the straw from the threshing machine(Wood Bros. Humming Bird) right into the baler, just run the engine at a fast idle, by the end of the day that old 77 was almost completely covered up with straw. It had a wagon hitch and chute on it and would push straw bales on to a wagon and a guy would pile load after load, I remember it like it was yesterday. that baler had the Wisc. with battery start and a generator with point ignition. It always started and run good, I used it up into the 80's, and baled straw with it until 99, it made beautiful straw bales. Sold it to a fellow a couple years ago and it is at the Nowthen Threshing show, so it will live on probably forever. I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of bales that baler made. Thanks for posting the pictures, brought back many memories.
 
The first pic looks like what my brothers and I did a lot in the late 50's. Pulled a 77 with an "H" baling lots of straw and alfalfa. Didn't have any problem starting a hot VE4 - with electric start. We dumped the bales on the ground at first, later added a chute and drawbar.
 

I had a used Super 77 for a long while. Hated cranking the engine. Late in my ownership I put another used magneto on it and a carb kit and it started much better. Made great bales. The super 77 had the adjustable bale length mechanism like modern balers have. The arm on mine wore and I built it up with the welder and ground it smooth, it outlasted the baler. The older 77s had adjustable points on the star wheel so the bale length could be changed with a lot of time spent. That system had a cam system to trip the knotter, obviously expensive to make. Price for the baler in the 50s was $2000, as I recall being told as a boy.

KEH
 
My Dad custom baled with that baler. He never pulled a wagon because the bales would not stay on the wagon at he speeds he traveled. Those pictures looked normal to me. :) Nice pictures.
 
I like those old film pics and slides, "transparencies" they were called back in the 50's. The vivid colors just look "right" to me for that period. I think that was a result of the film type, Kodachrome probably, and the developing process. I wonder if there's a way to set my digital camera to mimic that style?

Anyway, great pics. I wish we were picture takers. We just aren't, but my parents were. Sadly, a lot of the old photo albums are lost in storage someplace or different relatives got them that don't value them.
 

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