Green Hay - 1947

[@tractormanmike1830]

the dairy farm I work at had a system like this in one of their old barns, the only one in the area that I know of. it worked really well

[@intheknow7659]

Most probably were removed if they were there, as they took up a lot of room when square bales came into the picture.

[@mauriceupton1474]

Watching from Auckland New Zealand

[@ArmpitStudios]

It’s great that the farmer went inside to clean up and change into his suit before visiting the other farms. We’ve lost classiness.

[@haweater1555]

Many of the barns shown already have silos --- same principle for hauling in hay while green. But GE sells electric fans, not silage choppers.

[@intheknow7659]

Now a days, there are products that can mitigate a day lost in nice weather. Preservative.. Discbines, and haybines have crimpers, which really accelerates the dry time, they didn't have widespread usage. There was a machine that did crimp they hay after it was cut, then later was integrated. Now there are tine fingers, and ways to increase and decrease reaming of the hay. This does make a huge difference, and preserves the sugars. Many many barns have been lost due to green hay in barns..

[@cilliangalvin8646]

We still store our hay loose here in Austria, only with machines not horses.

[@davidkottman3440]

Do you use self loading wagons? Which part of Austria?

[@cilliangalvin8646]

@@davidkottman3440 yeah we use claas self loaders. Tirol

[@DeniseSkidmore]

So, what happens if you have a power outage or a fan failure during the curing time? You need a really reliable system to not risk a barn fire and spoilage.

[@samkom33]

good point, but most farmers are good with their hands. and if they dont have an emergency generator, they usually have say a TRACTOR with a PTO. ORE SOMTHING.

[@abb117]

Spontanius combustion don't happen over night. Usualy i takes a couple of weeks. Fans are quite simple reliable equipment. We ran one 30 season and if i flip the switch today i bet it would turn on as usual.

[@haweater1555]

12:00. What brand of baler is that? The guy has to ride along (in all the dust if the hay was dry) to be sure the knotter keeps working? The first completely reliable baler, that didn't need a seat for a "helper" , was the New Holland 77 from 1949.

[@peterbriggs6042]

@@haweater1555 Early balers didn't have knotters that guy on the back would tie them by hand, in this video I couldn't see any board fall out, that would be between the bale so you could run the wire through. So can't say how this one tied.

[@barriefarmsjr]

Sounds like a recipe for a barn fire

[@rolandjohansson7428]

Harold Stewart was a good man.

[@tonyteel]

So it was the same back then as it is now.As soon as you cut the hay crop ,it rains with out fail..

[@easynotme]

unless you realy need the rain

[@chrismarzec9213]

I think this system would still work for grain, silage, or hay.but they have blower tubes that can be used instead of the wood plenums. I would have heating pipes in a poured concrete floor plus the flexible blower pipes. Heat and air and an open flat floor make for an efficient operation

[@limpet77]

Nice piece of farming history. Thanks. Got any more of the same sort?

[@shamsuldin6852]

wow!so planed diary farming.I love it.

[@CougarLand]

Fire is the reason farmers didn't attempt to store unwrapped high moisture hay in the mows. They don't have the space needed to create the "air flow" talked about here. And unlike the 40% moisture content talked about here, the optimal level for wrapped bales is 55% and the whole point to wrapping is to remove oxygen from contact with the hay to lower the pH level to stop microbial growth. This old method actually uses fans to blow air on the hay constantly. Plus, wrapped bales can be left outside eliminating the need for the storage facility altogether.

[@fastsetinthewest]

I remember. The lighting was the worse! County Agent never came around our farm. Government loafers. Our farm was ahead of anyone too. Spontaneous combustion was ideal in this type of drying. Burnt up a lot of barns. You people take these government videos with caution.

[@billastell3753]

It's the same with a lot of government advice. Bad. The folks they hire peddle themselves as experts but that is questionable. I had one government forester check out my property for tree planting 40 years ago. Told me I couldn't plant red pine as the soil was too alkaline. Said they'd grow to 12 feet then die. Well I did plant a few but not many. 40 years later those few trees are lovely 40-60 foot trees. Wish I hadn't taken his advice.

[@MrThenry1988]

No one is doing this today. Lol.

[@haweater1555]

General Electric burned down a barn in order to show why the farmer should buy an electric drying fan. (MANY farms didn't even have electric service at this time.)

[@sassy6292]

You’re absolutely right…Do not trust the government.

[@sassy6292]

@@MrThenry1988 his point is that the government is not to be trusted at any point in history. So laugh out loud all you like lol

[@never2late454]

Had a farmer here lost his barn a couple years back to combustion doing this. Keep your hay dry !

[@l337pwnage]

Almost had that happen growing up. Mom called the fire dep't. They ripped the wall out of one side of the barn and pulled the hay out, and dad was mad, lol.

[@scratchdog2216]

I remember a barn fire in our town when I was very young. Didn't see the actual fire, just 19:45. Sad.

[@onaclover-coveredhill9618]

Wait a minute, so many people commenting are saying how this wasn't a good idea and shouldn't be done?? I've heard that modern hay bailing destroys leaves and nutrient rich flowers. And that cows will frequently refuse to eat stalks of dried-baled hay. Well just looking at these old fashioned ways of drying and baling hay, you would think that there are more leaves and flowers left in the hay than with modern baling. But with field dried hay (the Swedish way) and in barn dried hay, the cows will eat it all.

[@MistressOP]

the whole thing was wood but a modern way of doing it maybe .... plastic piping.. stuff they use for lawn piping. we sorta do something like this to dry grain. it's costly though.

[@MrThenry1988]

I've found the more you screw with the hay the more you beat it up. I've seen guys ted and rake the hay till it ain't nothing but stems.

[@dlmarquart]

Keep an eye on it to prevent problems

[@l337pwnage]

Gee, that electric motor gizmo sure looks handy. Say, anybody know if there was an advantage to twisting the flat belts like that? I see that done quite a bit, sometimes when you don't think it would be necessary. We did use a tractor mounted belt saw like the one in the video for fire wood, but that was the only belt driven equipment we actively used.

[@RustyCarnahan]

A half-twist in a flat belt helps them track straighter, and run truer on the crown of a flat belt pulley.

[@TrapperAaron]

Only time ive seen a spontaneous hay fire was in round bails that were bailed wayyyy to green.

[@denniscurless904]

I wonder what the reason was that farmers ignored the payoff of better quality feed. When I lived on the farm as a kid never heard this even in ag class.

[@DeniseSkidmore]

+Dennis C A) Barn fire risk B) only works with loose hay and most folk bale.

[@onaclover-coveredhill9618]

It works with baled hay too according to the reference you gave

[@DeniseSkidmore]

Been awhile since I read that reference. I think the design is a bit different than in the video to accommodate the increased resistance to airflow.

[@MrThenry1988]

Ain't been since the 40s.

[@downbntout]

Need thermometers in it with alarm to sound if it overheats

[@mariekatherine5238]

A barn fire with perishing livestock is a horrible thing to witness.

[@cobraboxer3648]

is this more effective than silage?

[@laynebradley8880]

Silage is corn but this is a risky type of hay curing. We cure all our hay in the field

[@cobraboxer3648]

@@laynebradley8880 how is this risky? How do you cure in the field?

[@markenge9348]

Milk from cows fed silage is not good for making hard cheeses. This green hay and pasture is ideal.

[@DougM63]

Ohhhh I bet it smelled good

[@Beaguins]

Why does the title say 1947 when 0:35 shows copyright 1946?

[@riderbass230]

Possibly taped and made in 1946 but released in 1947. Or just a typo

[@XGalaxy4U]

Just tedder it again if it rains. You lose a lot of nutrients if it does though. That green stuff can spontaneously combust and burn down your barn. Especially if bailed.

[@TheGrmany69]

So, not much different that dry Christmas spur and fir, isn't it? Those things can burn in a blink.

[@XGalaxy4U]

@@TheGrmany69 What happens is it starts to ferment. It gets so hot that it catches fire. You certainly want a silo for green cut. You can search balers caught fire. Plus it rots quick and the livestock won't eat it.

[@TheGrmany69]

@@XGalaxy4U I see, apparently is not exactly that it rots, the plants continue breathing within the bale because they are not completely dry and that ignite the combustion due to high temperatures, according to what I could find, I certainly suspect fermentation as well. What does a silo do? I thought it was for grain only.

[@XGalaxy4U]

@@TheGrmany69 Well, the rotting is another matter. If you bale it with too high moisture content you get a lot of problems. I guess we lost about 30, 2000 lb bales a couple years ago because of mold. I've seen lately where it can be sprayed with citric or ascorbic acid as it's baled and prevent many of those issues. As far as the silo. I'm thinking they use a trench silo. It's just a big trench and you dump it in there. Then you pack it down with a tractor or other implement. We have both and upright concrete silo and concrete trench silo. I don't ever remember the trench being used. We used the upright until about 15 years ago. See it was a Grade A milk farm that my great and granddad ran. They are for silage. Chopped up corn, stalk and all. That gets pretty toasty. The cows love it. They start bucking around when they're going to get fed. You're possibly thinking of the big steel or aluminum silos. They are for grain or beans.

[@4gauge10]

Green hay inside of a barn??...If I was a farmer,I'd never sleep again,green hay inside of a barn is playing with sudden death,to do what's in this video,you would need a backup diesel generator,a water sprinkler fire protection system too,this is very dangerous to say the least.

[@robertnymand9889]

Loose hay was on it's way out by that time.

[@Hankbhomeless]

Theres a reason why square balers became a thing that and chopping haylage. Storing loose hay was a bitch from hell!

[@vincentvanhook253]

If you are interested I have just posted “Hay Biology, Baling and Harvesting” kzbin.info/www/bejne/r3mwf6qHd7Z8ppo. I use it for an agricultural supplement for my 7th grade science glass. Most of the pictures are from our family farm. I use it to show examples of biology and engineering in everyday life. - Thanks Vincent

[@deernutOO]

An idea that didn't catch on. Probably because too many hay barns caught on fire and burned down.

[@UndoFilms]

deernutOO Didn't catch on? In Switzerland you see this on almost every farm ...

[@DeniseSkidmore]

+UndoFilms Is it this system, or are you thinking of the big hay racks where hay is held up in thin layers? Hay racks are a necessity in places where the weather doesn't allow field drying.

[@UndoFilms]

+Denise Skidmore I know what you mean. But these racks haven't been used here in decades. What is promoted in this video is basically what you see on many swiss farm to this day. Only much more sophisticated, with multiple, hight capacity, more turbine-like fans, large cranes and generally much more volume. Some farmers even heat up the air they blow into the hay barn. The reason for all this is mainly historical. Traditionally, swiss farmers have produced milk for hard cheese. The production process of which requires milk from cows that feed on hay rather than silage. Greetings from Switzerland : )

[@DeniseSkidmore]

+UndoFilms Very cool. I should look for more info on that. Hay windows are very hard to find here. I went to Switzerland once, but I was stuck in the towns, never got to the countryside.

[@DeniseSkidmore]

The additional reading claims that barn fire risk is reduced, and having felt my bales heat up a bit in my loft when put up supposedly dry, I could see that maybe there is a point there, but I've been so indoctrinated to not let air into the stack when it's heating, it's hard to change my thinking around.

[@KlineDeere]

Boy I bet these guys flipped when the square bales came

[@killthebums]

Could have just made silage but whatever

[@stevenmetzger3385]

Back then, ensilage equipment was not well developed

[@haweater1555]

@@stevenmetzger3385 Several barns shown already had silos.

[@stevenmetzger3385]

Haweater Silos, yes. But I have heard my grandfathers & father, relate what it was actually like, using that "early ensilage technology," & it was a far cry from what I used, in the 60s & 70s. & I even had to use a hand silage fork, in 1 particular silo, on 1 of our rented farms, to pitch out the feed, to the yearling cattle. But, the machinery used by us then, in the field, @ the silos, & inside the remaining silos, was so far advanced, from the 50s, that there is no comparison, regarding the labor & time saving methods. It was so much more EFFICIENT

[@onaclover-coveredhill9618]

GE i love u

[@downbntout]

Better yet, sell the haying machinery, stop making payments on it all. Then send the cows out onto that forage in an adaptive grazing plan to harvest it all themselves, leaving no manure in the barn. No manure to lie on means far less mastitis. Calving on grass means clean navels.

[@johnittel1568]

Bb

[@BBFSGaming]

why bother just make silage makes better milk anyway

[@markenge9348]

Silage milk not good for hard cheeses.