Hay trucks-how are they loaded

My wife says I am almost a farmer now because I now posess an 1965 IH B414 with a total of 4 implements!

However, what all my neighbour farmers take for granted, I usually have no idea of what they are talking about and I either stand there nodding my head like I understand what they are talking about or else I am like a three year old asking questions like there is no tomorrow.

In my recent attempt to try to understand how farm things work I was puzzled by the following. When we order hay for the horses from a local supplier he gladly, for a pretty nice price, delivers a load of some 400 small squares on a tilting deck truck.

How do they load those bales on the truck? I know that can"t be doing it by hand because it sure takes me a long time to unload that pile into my barn loft (which has led me to believe that I can save myself a lot of lower back pain if I build a pole shed that he can unload that trailer into).

I hope this question isn"t too goofy and I hope that you all will entertain more of these kind of questions from me in the future.

Thanks
Ken
Drumheller, Alberta
Canada

Bobg

Heck I haven't sold any hay yet this winter. I have only sold "off the wagon" at each taking of the crop. My main horse buyer doesn't have enough space to take all he needs at one shot. I am sitting on at least 450 bales that my sheep don't need this winter. I usually sell out at the end of February or March.

Also keep in mind all bales are not not the same, even from the same farmer. My first crop bales may or may not be worth as much as the second or third crop bales. I also have different types of hay fields so even in one harvest I have bales that are 100% grass and bales that are 50/50 grass/alfalfa. Some horse buyers are willing to pay a premium for the 100% grass bales with no thistle. Because this is Dairyland, there is usually plenty of 100% alfalfa bales all winter, but you might have to take round bales....

I quess if your are farming you sure hope your family includes a lot of boys!

Dave

Some have a graple that will pick up a bunch all at once with the loader tractor.

Donovan from Wisconsin

I hauled hay most every summer of my youth.....I remember the farmer starting to bale about the time the dew lifted and hay dried....just after noon.....always hot that time of the day....open tractor, no cab, no airconditioning...

Kids....usually a half a dozen or so, would start picking up hay out of the field about 3 pm..... stop for dinner which was brought to the field.....and work well into the night unless there was a heavy dew.....

depending on how many kids showed up, might have a couple of tractors and hay wagons, with one kid stacking and two picking up, one on the tractor which moved in low gear.....

I remember that more than once, when the hay was stacked 7 layers high, and all the kids on top, we would loose the load on the way to the barn.....kids....hay....tumbling from 10 or 12 feet in the air..... .

I remember wasp nest in the hay loft and how hot a loft is around 5 pm.....

Paid 2 cents a bale.....so, 5 kids put up 500 bales came out to a buck a piece.....

If you worked hard, you might get to work tobacco...which paid real money....buck an hour!

I have a daughter for help, but she's more of the "operator" during bale season. I started letting her run the tractor on her own when she was 14,(she's 15 now) baling straw with my Ford 871. She graduated to the Oliver 1800 this past summer. (Claims if for herself now... guess I need to find me another)

I put her up in the loft when I unload since I can pitch them in farther and she's able to stack easy enough with the low ceiling in my horse barn so it works out. She's on the petite size, so usually her mother will end up coming out to help her. (I get 2 for 1)