ClS—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 28; 1980 We talk in glowing terms about tbe tremendous progress that has come to agriculture. There’s been a revolution, we say. Gone are the days of back breaking work in the hot sun. Gone are the long hours and the physical demands. We talk about the machines that do everything, leaving the farmer to ride over his land in air-conditioned comfort while technology does the work. And then 1 watched one of those modern farmers harvesting a hay crop. It was like seeing a dinosaur m his dairy barn along with his high-producing Holstein cows. This guy, who owns the latest in farm equipment, bales his hay about the same way he did 30 years ago. He has air-conditioned tractors for plowing and cultivating, -r C this building costs 40% less! ' . -"|j - j. jj^lj YES, it costs 40% less than conventional steel buildings '. PARTY CONSTRUCTION CO., INC. 1218 Steuben St. I lica, N.Y. 13501 315-724-5593 CUSTOM BUILT HAY WAGONS * BUILT FROM SOLID OAK * OUTSIDE CALF HUTCHES With Metal Roofs And Feeders • Painted and Creosoted FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WRITE OR CALL STOLTZFUS WOODWORK Farm Talk Jerry Webb a self-propelled, do everything combine for harvesting corn and soybeans, and yet he bales hay the way his father did. Now I’m not against baling hay—some of the very best fanners do it—but the way this guy was doing it was a shame. There they were, two guys, a baler and a wagon. One guy sits on the tractor and steers it down the long windrows while the pick-up attachment gathers up the hay and feeds it into the self tying baler. But that’s where progress stops. On the back end of that baler is an upward tilted chute that funnels the bales toward a flatbed wagon hitched to the baler. And on that wagon is the other guy— trying to pull 80 pound bales out of that shoot and stack them on the wagon. RD 2, Box 2280, Gap, PA 17527 717-442-8972 There’s another problem— as the load builds, the floor space, shrinks until finally the worker is trying to stand in a spot the size of a hay bale while heaving one of those heavy, bulky objects onto the stack which is now higher than his head. The job is made even worse by the fact that hay is baled on bright sunny days in summer when the tem perature is quite high. This scene is not unusual. Many of the best equipped farmers bale hay this way even though machines are available that eliminate most of the hand work. Either they cost too much or farmers don’t like them or they don’t make enough hay to need them—and there are other reasons. But the result is the same; their haymaking techniques are of a Stone Age variety. If you look back in machinery history you’ll find farmers baling hay the same way in the late 1930’5. About the only improvement has been the self-tying baler ' That would be a hard job standing still and it’s worse at three or four miles an hour as the ng goes bumping and bouncing over the field in its never ending quest for hay. You know what it’s like trying to stack bales four or five high without falling off the wagon or having the bales fall off. that came along after World Warll. As a small boy of 10, I worked one of those bale wagons along with my older brother. It was all two of us could do to manage those big bales in such a precarious position It took both of us to get them from the chute and into some order on the wagon. And I knew even then that there had to be a better way. There was! A few years LIQUID GLASS ITS WATERPROOF, ACID AND SALT PROOF Apply like paint, when dry has a surface like porcelain. Has lasted for 11 years in milk houses and still is in good shape dome Uses: • Poultry & Catl.'e water troughs • Farrowing & Finishing Houses • Water Proofing Basements USDA APPROVED FOR MEAT PROCESSING ESTABLISHMENTS. AT A FRACTION OF THE COST OF GLASSBOARD AND TILING! LANCASTER CO J.B. ZIMMERMAN & SONS Blue Ball & Strasburg, PA 717-354-4955 BRANDT'S SUPPLY INC. 601 E. High St. Elizabethtown, PA 717-367-1221 LANCASTER & CHESTER CO LAPP'S HARDWARE AND DAIRY SUPPLIES RD 4, Box 96, Loop Road Quarryville, Pa. 17566 717-786-3970 BEDFORD CO BENCE FARM EQ. Bedford, PA BERKS CO LONGACRE ELECTRICAL SERVICE, INC. 602 Mam St. Bally. PA 215-845-2261 POTTER CO M & M BARN SALES RD #1 Westfield, PA MARYLAND P & S EQUIPMENT INC. 3639 Grier Nursery Road Street, MD 21154 301-452-8521 PERRY CO RONALD FAUTH MULTI SERVICE EQUIP. CORP. R D 1 Loysville, PA RD2, Box 114 717-438-3530 Somerset, PA 15501 814-445-6842 Direct Dealership Inquires to; HORACE E. HEINDEL & SONS FARMS later manufacturers developed bale throws— and wagons that scooped • - bale off the ground and placed them in stacks. Then came the large round and large square bales and their associated systems. Also, there are now hay handling techniques that don’t involve bales at all. And yet out of habit or economics, or whatever, farmers cling to the old ways. The hot, sweaty, dirty DON UPPERMAN DAIRY EQ. 1126 N. Franklin St. Chambersburg, PA 717-264-6007 Eastern Region Distributor P.O Box 3146, York, PA 17402 Call Jeff -717-755-8062 ways that have made so many farm boys swear they were going to leave the farm and never go back. The same ways tirof remind some one-time farm boys why today they only write about hay baling. • Bunk Feeders • Milking Parlors • Mangers • Use Instead of White wash YORK & ADAMS CO PARADISE FARM & HOME CENTER RD 1, Box 265 Thomasville, PA 717-225-1064 LEBANON CO. HUBER'S ANIMAL HEALTH SUPPLIES 810 Tulpehocken Road Myerstown, PA 17067 BRADFORD CO HARLAN MARTIN'S SURGE SALES Troy, PA 717-297-3972 NORTHAMPTON CO ARTHUR MILLER SURGE DAIRY SUPPLIES Wind Gap, PA 215-863-9712 FRANKLIN CO VIRGINIA JOHN G. DALLAIN RD 1 Box 113 Remington, VA 22734 703-439-3842 CENTRE CO henry m. glick Box 203 C, RD 2 Howard, PA 16841 SOMERSET CO «J»thb«aiamcCD
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers