Haying Season (ca 1950)

Credits
pastebin.com/NLPSFVzq
- Rights: The Stewart family shares this film under a Creative Commons attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/b... External).
- Les Stewart's film “Haying Season” (ca. 1950) documents haying on the Ninety-Six Ranch. Les’s narration, including comments from his seven-year-old grandson Brad Kaser, was recorded on July 7, 1982, by Margaret Purser and Carl Fleischhauer. Les's footage testifies to his sensibility and skill as a documentary filmmaker. The film indicates his concern that every process step be included and his understanding that the work event includes the arrival of the workers, the preparation and setup of equipment, and the meal that marks the midpoint of the day.
The era following World War II was the time of transition from horse-drawn to motor-driven machinery. In the footage of haying, some horse-drawn equipment, including the derrick itself, has simply been attached to a tractor or jeep. Mechanization of this sort does not offer much of a reduction in labor; the next generation of machines, designed to work with internal combustion engines, enabled ranchers to cut back on hired help. Les's narration explains how the work is organized and directed. In the opening section of the film, he notes that scheduling haying between major holidays reduces the likelihood of losing the crew to celebratory drunkenness. The hierarchy of workers is implied in his comments about the lead mower and the stack boss.
Les also tells how members of the mowing crew would criticize each other for failures to execute the work properly. The stacking crew also exercised self-discipline through verbal exchanges in a competitive work environment. In remarks not included in this soundtrack, Les said that if one corner of the neat, box-like stack were to collapse due to a stacker's poor craftsmanship, the crew would "whoop and holler and embarrass the poor guy to death." The haying crew posing for the group portrait shown here numbers eleven.
In 1983, Les could still recall many of the men's names: from the left are Raymond Arriola, Frank Sellers, an unidentified Indian, George Morrel, Bias Urrieta, Gus Ramasco, an unidentified Indian, Stanley Smart, Arthur Horn, Albert Skedaddle, and an unidentified man. The stackers in the Ninety-Six's crew were Northern Paiute Indians. Les said that they were better at the work than whites, an idea echoed in Stanley Smart's comments in a related audio selection.
When mowing and stacking occurred simultaneously, the number of men in a derrick-era hay crew might total eighteen or twenty. The mowing crew would consist of about five men on mowing machines and one or two men operating buck rakes. There might be one or two more men supporting this crew and yarding the hay, pushing it to a location convenient for the subsequent stacking operation. The stacking crew included five or six stackers on top; two net tenders and a tractor driver (or teamster) on the ground; and two buck rake men to move hay onto the net. Les said that the stacks would sometimes stand for as many as a dozen years, and the slight amount of precipitation in the valley would only spoil the outer layer. Stacks of baled hay will not last as long.

[@DPK99ATown]

I used to bale and stack hay for a job in the summer when I was off from school. The ingenuity of farmers always amazed me. Those trucks with the gears turned around to run backwards are a great example of that. Great video and narration!

[@thegumbofarmer2383]

This is the best narration! I would listen to this guy all day. Probably has some good stories.

[@scrotiemcboogerballs1981]

People now days have no clue how easy they got it compared to how life was just 50-75 years ago or more

[@sandib4234]

Man you are sure right on that, they would be afraid to get their hands dirty and they wouldn't be able to stand the heat like we did.

[@TheBrushcutter]

@@sandib4234 hands? What do you mean, hands? Hay work got us dirty all over our everywhere. Lol

[@ChicanoOne760]

That's ok. Immigrants do those jobs now.

[@kamurray67]

I am 55, even though my father saw more advancement in life than I have, the amount of changes I have seen is still amazing.

[@randymaylowski2485]

@ScrotieMcboogerballs of course not, they don't teach history of agriculture like anything else that's important of history they don't teach pa sides stupid race shit.. p,s not only that just imagine how haying would be back before tartors and sickle mowers camed out where they had to hand cut everything by hay scythes and corn knifes. Most people nowadays would go nuts if they had to do haying like that.

[@harlansteele5473]

I grew up in Northern Minnesota , hay seasons were short . The hay was Timothy. Uncle Art cut Hay with an F20 Farmall . I raked it with the Joker. a cut down 26 GMC truck With the seat sitting on the gas tank. it had just a firewall and a hood with a chrome radiator shroud . steel wheels with wooden spokes and 14 ply tires I pulled a side delivery rake. This brought back some memories.

[@ruedaricardo]

Wow. That stack is probably four stories tall. Haying was very labor intensive.

[@_multiverse_]

This can be accomplished by one man with today’s machinery. Incredible

[@MidnightPolaris800]

Love it. Times were simpler for sure

[@catchingupwiththewalkers]

I learned something today. Thanks

[@jamessmith7691]

My dad got a jeep after the war. It served them well as a tractor and car for some years.

[@douglassellers7528]

Did it have the PTO on it?

[@bobbates6642]

Never seen the hay dealt with in that manner . Saw plenty of bails and people having to toss them up on the trailer . Hard work and it was something that made some people so itchy they could not do it .

[@mikeewalt6270]

I worked on a ranch, the hardest job I ever had. I'd go back in a minute. I remember cutting raking & bailing hay. Even drove a team of draft horses during one of the worst winters South Dakota had seen in a hundred years. Forty below , when it got up to forty degrees I thought it was jeans & tee shirt weather.

[@fourfortyroadrunner6701]

I was born in 48, we had a cow/ beef or 2 on about 40 acres. Dad never had a bailer until after I joined Navy in 68. Tractor was 24-28 Farmall "regular" mower and rake were former horse drawn. First few years --and I was young--used dump rake, then a side delivery. Even the side delievery may have been horse, it was steel wheels. Then Dad got a loose hay loader, would work you to death, plus pumping dirt and bugs up onto you along with hay, LOL. First couple years I rode the dump rake I had to jam a stick into the "hold down" as I was too little and weak to prevent it "kicking up"

[@LarsonFamilyFarm-LLC]

Impressive way to hay...everything seemed to be better in the 1940's-1950's...simpler but more united, more labor intensive.

[@nicke1903]

Ya know, it's sad but it's clear the best is behind us now, if I could have my 2 boys and them and my family be healthy, 50-60's just feels good,we wouldn't know any better so it would be life either way.

[@spanky12310]

Love hearing that kid ask questions 👍👍

[@fasx56]

I have never seen a LARGE FARM operation from the 1950s that put up Hay with this method and type of equipment, it was a real surprise. I grew up in the 50s on a Small Farm and we put up loose hay by cutting, raking in rows, shocking in piles and then hauling to barn with a truck. Big difference is the size of this very large farm for 1950. They were using methods to move large amounts of hay around and the equipment was designed and Jerry Rigged to meet the challenge. There was a Dairy Farm near our home in the 50s that did not use Loose Hay. They cut their hay and grass called it Silage and put it in a large SILO where it was stored and used as needed. When Hay Bailers came into use that changed farming methods a lot and saved a lot of labor.

[@dominicohea5624]

Beautiful work. Hard to beat the natural way

[@jamesmason8944]

The little boy sounds real smart and observant.

[@Deontjie]

Making hay while the sun shines...

[@Jack-ne8vm]

In winter we used a hay saw to cut chunks off a pile to feed critters.

[@outinthesticks1035]

My dad always said it made it so much easier when he got a tractor and baler . I was not so sure . He had a John Deere AR and a 44 Massey , 7 foot mower , side delivery rake and new Holland baler . I started driving tractor to bale when I was 8 , got shifted to the stooker at 12 . Used to get home from school at 4 , supper by 5 , bale hay or straw till midnight or 2am . Then up for school at 6 . When the baler quit tieing then I would put my gloves and hands over the muffler to warm up . The day crew would be just leaving for the field when I got up in the morning . Hard work but good memories , didn't get much chance to see my dad unless I went to the field with him

[@chasethreshing]

The real amazing thing, is when your lineage knows the Garden of Eden works for you. Thy Kingdom come, it shall be done, on earth as it is in heaven. My sins make it so I sweat to eat, the earth is a closed loop system, I maintain dominion over: after I regain it.

[@raymondjenkins4332]

@@chasethreshing I

[@ronaldburgess2884]

I like seeing those Case VA tractors in action. I have a 1953 Case VAC wide front row crop tractor.

[@brianhealey5286]

Memories of my boyhood driving a well worn Farmall Super H with sidebar cutter. Then towing a New Holland 3 string baler and all high school crew working until we dropped getting the bales up in the barn...wish more kids today got that chance. Never saw this method of stacking hay...must have been a commercial haying operation. Thanks for posting Dan.

[@karencarter8292]

Yes, the New Holland 3-string baler. You never forget the sounds.

[@brianhealey5286]

@@karencarter8292 Oh, Karen-that sidebar cutter and baler...at 82 I still have all my fingers and toes...then there was the corn chopper making silage...it is a wonder we were not maimed or killed kids. Nice to talk to a farm gal who knows the territory.

[@karencarter8292]

@@brianhealey5286 'Grew up in a mountain farming community of, at that time, several dairy farms. Yes, in the fall, my brother and I walked up the road where the silos were being filled with corn silage. I can still smell the sweet silage. I am hitting 74.

[@brianhealey5286]

@@karencarter8292 Karen, you sound like you are in high spirits for 74. Good for you. My wife and I (now 59 years married) hoof it (no pun) 7 to 10 miles per week plus dance. Must share a chuckle that she never milked a cow until I brought her to my friends farm (60 head Holsteins) and strapped a 3 toed stool on her. Then my bud gave her instructions on how to milk and strip. My wife's hands were warm and the old gal (cow) just relaxed against the other cow. There was my wife with her head barely showing between the two cow bellies as she pulled those teats. So funny we still roar about it in the family. My honey is a good sport that way. Wish you the same jolly memories. BTW-I am a retired engineer.

[@karencarter8292]

@@brianhealey5286 Yes, I am doing as well as can be and can't complain, not too much. Yes, the farms were of primarily beautiful Holstein - Friesians, the marvelous black and white breed, originally bred by the Dutch. Easy going cows who are a gentle, wonderful breed and prolific milker. That kind of farm, dairy, was a lot of hard work, and the milking job was arduous, even with milking machines or pipelines. We knew each cow by her name. We loved them; they were like pets. BTW, my late husband was a civil engineer.

[@gregphillips1998]

That’s very interesting. Nothing like how my grandfather thrashed and bailed hay on his farm in Virginia.

[@bobthomas9525]

Love those old case tractors.

[@alanhodge984]

this is one of the most remarkable things i have ever seen i spent many days on my grandfather's farm but they had a dairy nothing like this

[@dennisdunne588]

There is a very interesting video of stacking hay in Montana. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nF7cZZuehtJ8pLM

[@toddr.4630]

Great job ,, much appreciated 👍✌️

[@cheeseburger9232]

These were the days , when a man's word ment more than a bunch of lawyers , I was born too late.

[@sandib4234]

Really interesting I enjoyed watching and listening to you I also like that little Feller in the background making comments he's a cutie!

[@edwardbright5894]

This Country has moved forward so fast, this video seems like a foreign place and time. I like the old ways and old days. I don't like what technology has done to America 🤠👍🚜

[@knmaherijayatp8181]

so why you on youtube then?

[@edwardbright5894]

@@knmaherijayatp8181 Enjoying the film from the Old Day's.. Remembering Back When.🤠🐎🐎🐎🐃🐂🐃🐂🐃🐄🐓🐓🐓🐓🐓🐖🐖

[@HedgehogChopper]

hay making was hard enough in the 1970 with bales, Massey ferguson 35 and ford 3000 tractors, fingers tingling frim the constant lifting on the strings. In the UK it went into the barns and it was stacked in bays we call moo's imn line with the beams in the roof and my dad took pride it getting it right into the very top of the roof, sliding the last bales in endways lol. Hard but happy times People called them the good old dasy but i havfe to say it made old men of you, my back and shoulders are shot to hell from a life farming and fencing, if i could go back and change it would I... NOT A CHANCE lol

[@noname-lm2nq]

Thanks for the Video.

[@allanlavallee7171]

Made hay all thru the sixties using seven foot sickle mowers, dump and side delivery rakes, and an overshot stacker. Labor intensive but less so than square bales. As well loose hay stacks when properly topped will last a long time without spoilage. Miss those days.

[@lorenrasmussen338]

We had a John Deere overshot hay stacker in the 50s and early 60s….. and a VAC Case

[@ottobthomas6254]

God Bless America

[@sandib4234]

♥️🇱🇷✌️

[@marshalloutdoors1791]

The truck in the beginning looks like @Laura Farm's. Really cool to see how they used to do hay back then. Great video 👍

[@vstrom9586]

My Dad had one, I even got to drive it in the fields. 20 mph was fast & scary

[@work2gather]

I never knew hay could be stacked so high and last so many years.

[@jamesks16]

great vid

[@bobwalton5657]

It must be a honor to be the lead mower

[@connershepherd998]

Meh

[@johnlynn6291]

Less dusty anyway

[@urbanitesgarage3299]

Awesome

[@jhonsiders6077]

Never saw it done like this before and I grew up on a farm in Indiana . Every one had a square Baler and a sickle mower on the side or 3 point hitch some used to Tedder it to dry a few had the roller conditioners to squeeze the moisture out of the hay made a loud pop when you ran a snake through it !

[@nicke1903]

Oh to been on a crew, that's just a beautiful place to be.

[@davepayne9162]

i just love the old days,and how they worked, all the time in the world, just plod a long.

[@ChicanoOne760]

Trust me, it's way funner to watch. This is backbreaking laborious work

[@ginggur17]

Wow, never seen stacking like this 🇬🇧🇺🇸

[@glennmunk5707]

I had never seen such an operation like that before. I was in awe of the Derrick that was engineered to make the hay stacks and the size of the crew to do the operation, great video! But how did they feed from these stacks in the Winter?

[@hayhook132]

Ranch Farm life blessed forever nothing like it.

[@framfull]

Wish these guys could see how its done today.

[@lorenrasmussen338]

I spent many, many hours on our VAC 60-70 years ago….. often with my dad yelling at me from the seat on the dump rake or the grain binder.

[@peterkolcun8912]

Wow, How did they take hay out of that stack in the winter? Bottom to top?

[@framfull]

People of today cant even imagine how hard they work back in these days.

[@ChicanoOne760]

That's why everyone is so soft. People nowadays cling to racism in order to feel like they have an edge

[@hanspetersimon3689]

Good day, my grandpa have had to do this work without any mechanical support! All work by hand! Every member of his familiy took part If he didn't want to be hungry. Yes it was an hard work and every evening water was necessary to get clean. Today it is more simple to gain the results by machines. Most people have not any relation to this work. It isn't estimated from the majority of people. Have money go buying it. No producing for themselves! You must Love it what you do it and it will smell you better. Bye HP Simon Germany

[@davidnelson6893]

ALL COOL WOW

[@MrTyroneweaver]

I can remember driving the side delivery mowers. They were really fast and you wiped out a lot of pheasants with them. Seeing cats run across fields on their stumps.

[@markissboi3583]

When that Aussie guy tinkering in his barn hand made it all new idea in the day the Wheat combine harvester ended up working for sunshine Harvesters in Melbourne OZ .

[@barbarabeagley6650]

The Baldwin Combine was invented in the town I grew up outside of, and a friend of my dad invented a bale moving vehicle called the Green Machine, it was really a great help, byt never made it more than just locally in South Central Kansas. I think I've seen a video or 2 of them on KZbin in the past.

[@barbarabeagley6650]

I'm not having any luck finding it, but it was a motorized flat vehicle with an short bale elevator that picked up the bales as the driver drove through the field. There were 1 or 2 guys who then grabbed and stacked the bales at the back. It was a little bigger than the typical hay trailer back in the 70's. They vehicles were also perfect for parade floats!

[@ffjsb]

I started out baling hay on a '45 Farmall M, an old New Idea towed sickle bar mower, an old rotary rake on steel wheels, and a beat up Deere 24T baler. That was a pain in the butt doing it that way, but way better than this. Glad I didn't do it for a living. Last year was my last year, and a modern Kubota with a JD moco and rake, and a good MF 120 baler made it pretty easy, except for stacking it on the wagon.

[@cambian3]

Sorry this happened to you. You are a strong person and will come out of this even stronger. Glad everyone involved is OK.

[@dalebrown2375]

These folks differently were Case fans

[@pimslickins8321]

And I thought raking and baling hay was tough back in the '70's. Loading and stacking the barn sure was. And you never wanted the boss angry at you. The top stacker in the barn catches HELL.

[@waynes.2983]

What's really cool is to see this done with horses instead of machines.

[@650gringo]

If OSHA saw this they would do a retroactive investigation.

[@kevindumais9610]

Old School!

[@BrianDHoefs]

At the very beginning of this video they started cutting alfalfa and oats. You don’t see oats that tall at all. I’ve never seen oats that tall. That sure was something!

[@dlarta7265]

my grandpa would mix oats seed in the alfalfa field in late winter, early spring. it would get a couple feet tall.

[@pepper13111]

I grew like this, cycle bar cutting, rake it the bails on ground, on wagon by hand. In barn we had 3,000 bails , all started from bottom the to roof.

[@deweydodo6691]

With the windstorms lately I wonder how long a high built haystack would stay put ?

[@bestbuilder1st]

They had wind back then also. Some of the storms were much bigger than we have today.

[@TheBrushcutter]

@@bestbuilder1st and the only warning was when we saw them on the horizon.

[@christianwaller5751]

Would much rather do this than stocking it in the loft

[@Sojourning_]

I was 3 years old when this was made, I was 5 when some one plopped me in a seat of a tractor, and pointed the way, of course it didn't work out. back east.

[@cliffordinggs9789]

Hey that's amazing. Are those Farmmallcubs or mcormiks.

[@MilkMan608]

Case tractors. Couldn't tell you what model.

[@WheresMyMotivation]

Does anybody know what part of Ca?

[@user-qt8zt6zg6w]

And now people complain about having to stay home and watch tv

[@ChicanoOne760]

If you payed people to sleep they would wake up in defiance.

[@user-qt8zt6zg6w]

@@ChicanoOne760 theyd wake up to bitch about making 15 dollars an hour

[@notvaxed]

I have one of these tractors model 960 Ford row crop

[@robertblazier7530]

#anchor brand ranch. I think you’ll like this

[@rodchandlerii6922]

Where is this

[@Cypher791]

Gonna get yourself in trouble if you go and get too sophisticated… Modern Man is unemployed with no skills but dreams of being a TikTok influencer, the government knows what you like who you like where you are and what your worth at any and every given second of your life.

[@rogersayer5714]

Where is this haying ranch located? Great video

[@Jack-ne8vm]

Paradise Valley, Nevada, USA

[@rogersayer5714]

Thanks that was an interesting read. The ranch reminds me of my youth July 4th to labor day was all about alfalfa and hard work

[@landonleffler2106]

Any idea what city or county?

[@dennisdunne588]

The Ninety-Six Ranch of Paradise Valley, Nevada will celebrate 150 years in one location and in single family ownership/operation in 2014.

[@robinhill2442]

That kid would now be about 80.

[@gregwddriver]

Brand new Case VAC's and at least on Allis Chalmers WD or WC.

[@bobo44donemilking51]

How many acres was this ranch

[@TheBrushcutter]

Must have been big, those haystacks cover more ground than the average house lot these days. LMAO

[@bobo44donemilking51]

@@DanMillerXYZ wow

[@Deontjie]

Imagine opening thet gate with your Tesla.

[@ricklink786]

Good place to be

[@mfgt4595]

Hay must be full of rattlers ! Here in Wales, baled quite a few vipers over the years. Even saw one in a big baled silage, dead as a doornail thank God, squashed to smithereens. The little buggers got everywhere . Got bitten back in 2006 by a viper. I was really ill for 4 days . Too far from hospital.

[@anthonyraineri5190]

Why would they stack the hay so high for?

[@anthonyraineri5190]

@@DanMillerXYZ Your points make sense, thanks. I am thinking with it being that tall the internal heat must get very warm to hot even though the hay may be dry. And also if I wanted to use some of that hay during the winter if I start pulling from the bottom of the stack, can they yell timber quick enough? LOL

[@BillHarvey-qr5tf]

@@anthonyraineri5190 You would use a hay Saw and cut from the top.

[@captnemo8069]

Title should be "Haying (ca 1850)", this is haying back in the Stone-Age when hay was pitched into piles, by 1950 hay balers were used, invented in the 1930s. I'm 68 yrs old, have raised hay since I was a kid, still do, this is not how its done. Second falsehood, first field being cut is not alfalfa hay, alfalfa grows knee-high and bushy, not 6 ft stalks.

[@austencitrowske9741]

The narrator said alfalfa/oats, the oats are seeded with alfalfa as a nurse crop. Those tractors didnt exist in 1850.

[@vaquero7072]

They still stack hay similar to this in the Big Hole in montana . This method was used before they had tractors and used teams in this video it looks like they were just getting into tractors. My cousins are there neighbors now days everyone in that valley has swathers and balers. That was oats alfalfa mix by the way.

[@ripstephenhawking8787]

Awesome. Just pure badass. Men won't work like that today. Sadly... unless they're Mexican...

[@bikerhighmiler8998]

There are quite a few hardworking people today..they just don't blow their own horns..

[@juanvalles9730]

U damn rite we mex. Work hard ese

[@TheBrushcutter]

My hobby was digging rocks until a few years ago when hunting clubs leased all the land. Imagine what my actual work was like...

[@jtcorey7681]

Today they roll it and wrap it in plastic. Like giant snails in the field.

[@Deontjie]

The difference between America and Africa. Here in Africa we could not invent tools to solve problems.

[@stevenweaver125]

That's some big oats

[@mrt5293]

That's not grass, that's jungle 😂

[@londonghung3392]

Back when white people still had pride of working hard on a ranch. Now it's a Mexican ranch hand and farm and agricultural workers. Wish it was back to those days.

[@jerrymills4203]

Congress has went to shit

[@sandib4234]

Yeah it is a mess!

[@bestbuilder1st]

Yeah, but they sure have a good library!

[@kurtiskoppdrums]

Win rows not wind rows

[@terryallen9546]

Laid out in long rows to dry in the "wind." A lot of us were that little boy asking what that was. I'm still trying to figure out what - drunk or "sumpthin" is;-)