Well chaps have had a busy couple of weeks with the super mowing turning and baling 17 acres of hay just finish the last 380 bales this evening. Just got some contract mowing and baling to do pictures and video to follow soon I promise
Can't see any smoke coming out of your chimney. You haven't by any chance got a fantastic rebuilt engine in your wonderful Major, have you?!
Haymaking is not something I have ever done, but I'd love to have a go. Like Dave says, I bet the smell is great. The photo of a fifty year old tractor powering a 21st century bale wrapper says it all. The Major is no historical curiosity.
Excellent job Steve, nice to see her working for a living!
And I’m with Dave on making hay, there aren’t many things that smell better and bring back more memories of the “good old days”. The sunburn from being out in the field all day, the bloody raw scratches up and down your arms from the stems in the bales, sweating your ass off stacking bales in the haymow, hosing each other down with the garden hose before mom would even let us in the house to take a bath……I’d be back there tomorrow if I could.
MMMMMMMMMMMM the smell. I can almost smell that sweet hay from here (if I was using my Ford 5000 all I would smell would be deep fryer oil)
This brings back memories, although we never had a Major, (or a bale wrapper) for our haymaking.
Why don't forums have a 'like' button on photos
Kiwi Kev
"Classic Contracting"
66 Ford 5000 6X (semi retirement)
International 784 4WD
& looking at another tractor!
Awesome Steve! Wish I would remember to take pics of what I'm doing with my Major. Been cultivating the same 2 acres for 6 weeks now to keep the weeds down and the soil black. It's my parents lot that has lain fallow for 30+ years. At first I just used the cultivator as a giant rake to pull all the trash into the corners. Today I finally got into the dirt with the chisel plow bits on it. Man does that little girl like to pull! And she doesn't blow any smoke either, never rebuilt, all vintage 1959!
We had green and yellow tractors that we made hay with. Still smelled good no matter what colour them tractors were unless it got rained on. We cut it with several New Holland Haybines we had and sometimes two tractors going around the field at once. Our hay rakes were also ground driven New Hollands. They were a great unit and lasted for years.The last baler we had was had a bale counter and my dad would keep track for fun. He estimated when we finally were though with it that it had bailed over 500,000 bails. We had a 90 Cow average Dairy when I was growing up and us young uns got to mow the hay away in the top of the barn. One of the hottest and swettiest jobs I can ever remember. You always went to bed tired but felt real good the next day. Must be the sauna effect that it had.... The year my Dad sold off the heard we mowed away 30,000 bails in several different barns. Back then we had access to around 1,000 acers around the neighborhood. Our farm was 283 Acers and was about 2/3rds tillable. The rest was wood land. We use to get a Dollar a bale for excess hay back in the mid and late 1970's. Those were the days my Friends. Dandy Dave!