Stacking Hay in The Big Hole Valley Montana
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- Stacking Hay in The Big Hole Valley Montana
#haystack #farmhandmike #bigsky #bigholevalley
In this video I am in the Big Hole Valley of Montana as a local ranch is putting up hay with a Beaver Slide. This area got the name The Land of Ten Thousand Haystacks as at one time every ranch in the area put up hay this way. Most ranches have went to round baling the hay nowadays but there is a few ranches left still doing this practice. I was lucky enough to be passing through the area while this was going on. It was fascinating to watch this and I'm happy to be sharing it on TH-cam but it was even better to see it in person.
By far the coolest hay making video i have ever seen. Thank you Mike
I can see these people in their shops in the winter converting and modifying all this old equipment and having a blast.
Thank you very much Mike.
I was a ranch hand, and worked harvest crews for 10 years out there. We bailed round bails. But I've seen this. So different from ohio hay making. Thanks for bringing back a flood of great memories!! Beautiful country and people out in ol montan
Great video Mike, I put up hay very similar to this for over 20+ years. We didn't use the over the top frame like that. We just had a tractor with the hay sweep on it and would build the stack with it and one guy on the hay with a pitch fork to tie it in and pack it down. My uncle has had stacks last for a good 15 years and you peel off the outer layer and it's still good as when you put it up. I think the largest stack we ever built was around 50 ton. But the average was around 15 to 20 ton. The biggest difference in our operation was we had a stack mover and we would move the stacks to a hay yard. But once in awhile we would leave one in place and fence it. It was really cool to see this method still being used.
In the 60’s I was the high school kid who tramped the loose hay in the metal cage while my uncles raked and pushed the hay up. Usually we hired another stranger from town who wanted a spot job. After they endured the heat and lots of dust as the hay fell,
we never saw the same worker come back a second day. We live in Nebraska and stacked both loose
alfalfa and prairie hay. The prairie hay was very slippery and often fell apart when the stack was moved. Alfalfa stacked tight, transported well during moves. However, if it was “put up” too wet after rain or was “too green” that is not cured and dry in the windrows, then it would ferment in the stack and generate heat. I witnessed a stack catch fire from spontaneous combustion as it was being moved.
I have been in the Big Hole Valley several times and was always amazed at the hay stacks, but have never been able to watch them putting up the hay until your video. Thanks
Pure gold this one mike .what a find thanx for the share
Wow I did not think anyone did this any longer. So nice to see. Thank you for posting this.
I drove through there and couldn’t figure out how it was done and why. Thank you Mike for solving a several year mystery for me!
Just a couple hour drive west of our place. I have lots of good friends in the Big Hole. One of my favorite places, pure beef and cowboy country.
Ive Stacked with a Beaverslide, fed out of the Stacks Having Grown up in Jackson Hole Wyoming were they used them also. Built a New one for some Folks over in the Horse Prarie Valley. I have a copy of the Patent Drawings for the Beaverslide wich we used to build the new one. Those Drawings are one of my Treasures
I’ve done loose hay, but only with a couple of guys with pitchforks and hay racks. Nothing on this scale.
I didn’t know this technique existed. The ingenuity of mankind never ceases to amaze me.
I have heard of this being done but we used Farmhand F10 loaders on a 300 and 350 tractors. They had 14' wide hay heads with 9' long steel teeth instead of the wood ones shown here. We would 'buck' the hay from windrows into the piles as shown here but we would line the piles up in an area big enough for a stack and then we would start placing the piles together in such a way as to form a stack with a 'gable' shaped top. i.e. peaked up in the middle to shed rain. The stacks were about 16' x 30' and about 18' high at the peak. These were hauled home on a 14' wide chain mover bed mounted on a tandem axle truck. We didn't use people on the stack much unless there was a problem - if you placed the bunches of hay properly they all fit together and the pile stayed level.
Been there and done the same thing in Nebraska but with a newer Farmhand F-11 on a Case 800. THANKS Dan H
In the Teton Valley Idaho before I turned 10 I was a derrick boy riding or leading a horse to take the hay to the top of the stack. There were several men driving horses and a small tractor or 2 raking, bunching and bringing the hay in. Later on we moved to the Bitterroot and I ran dump rakes and side delivery rakes. I also stacked the hay which was a hard/technical job that had to be done right. We didn't use a Beaver Slide but my uncle built and used one. The slide was there until a year or so ago. All the people that go to Burger king for a hamburger would do well to watch this. This is what the beef (dairy too) eat and this is how they get that juicy burger. I'm not on the farm now but I know where food comes from. Thank you farmers and ranchers!
Thank You for making this video Mike. Seeing it being done the old way was very interesting.
Our farm in NE Ohio had conventional bails that we stacked in the barn until the mid 80's, then dad switched to round bails when we had all graduated and got jobs. Thanks for sharing this hat storing method. I had never seen this.
I'm so glad you stopped to document this, thank you Mike.
Summers of 1970 & 1971 I worked on a seasonal haying crew just outside of Wisdom, MT. We hayed a total of 3,700 acres (hundreds of 20-ton stacks) to winter feed a residual herd of 10,000. All hay was cut with 7-foot sickle bars. The cut hay was left to dry for 3-5 days. Hoop rakes then dragged the dried hay into rows. Then buckrakes built from modified bare truck frames mounted with wooden tooth baskets pushed the rows into bunched loads. The bunches were then delivered to the basket of the derrick. We called them derricks, not beaver slides. With expertise operation of the derrick there was no need for hands to move or rearrange the hay by hand with pitchforks. As a seasonal hire, I was paid $9/day plus room and board my first summer. Second year I was paid $11/day. Work averaged 10-12 hrs a day. But there were days that stretched to 18 work hours, when we cut hay under a full moon. The entire valley would shift to "haying time" including the 2 bar/cafes in Wisdom. This was back when "punchboards" and card tables (gambling) were still commonplace.
Thank You for this memory ... I didn't work there but spent some time with the cowboys in the Wisdom Bars 😊
@@carlboehm3858 When I worked in Wisdom, there were only two bars. They were on opposite sides of the highway. One named Antler's and the other was Fetty's (which was owned by Fergie). The same two bars were in place when I returned 7 years later driving through Wisdom enroute to Vancouver Island, B.C. Rather than the ordinary buzz-cut and smooth-faced kid of 16, I thought I'd changed significantly. I was older, taller, heavier (stronger) and had shoulder-length hair with a full beard. I had hardly stepped foot into Fetty's when Fergie gave me a second long glance before returning his attention to a bar customer. But he loudly asked, "So, tell me Ben, what's new in Kansas City?"
@@benhamilton1611 ... Last I was there was about 2006 ... Both were still in operation ... There was also another one South ... In Jackson I believe, had live music on Saturday ...
Grew up in the country and never seen hay stacks like this. I hope to see it in person someday.
Well done Mike. Never get tired of your type of videos!
In the Western panhandle of Nebraska we call that a over shot stacker. Very common up until the late 70's in the sand hills. We used "C" Internationals turned around backwards with duels for our hay bucks. They had 3 hay bucks on the hay crew I worked on in Grant County NE summer of 1978
This was much more enjoyable to watch than round balding!! Thanks, I just subbed....
Thanks
Up until 1968, the Donovan ranch on Horse Prairie (east of Big Hole) used all draft horses for all the mowing, raking and buckrakes. The beaverslide was run by a winch on the back of a cat. As a kid , I wondered why others used square balers!
That’s wild. Would’ve liked to have seen some more detailed close-ups of the machinery.
I was in Jackson Mt. In 1999 hunting on one of the nearby ranches for elk and deer. I saw the equipment and the hay stacks but until now had not seen how It actually works. The ranch manager explained everything stated here.I appreciate the opportunity to actually see it in action. If I remember correctly this method of stacking hay goes back a long way? Thank you, well done!
I have never seen this before, thanks for s sharing man
I have not seen this before, its like the mad max way of stacking hay. Love it!
this made me laugh haha well said
About 1960 in the lemhi Valley idaho I was suckered into being on the stack trying to keep up with the slide. Grandpa was driving the winch jeep, farmer gathering the hay. Finally wife came out with something to drink, I'd had nothing, said it was 114 degrees. I drank a quart of water. Farmer hollered out, this is way to put up hay! I never went back😢.
I worked on the Johnson Bros ranch just up the road from this ranch starting from 1994 -2000. Started when I was 12 driving a scatter rake. Worked my way up to the mowing crew the next year, a straight rake the next summer and a buckrake the years after. The largest crew I remember was about 30 people. Mostly kids living in a bunkhouse for the month of August working sun up to sun down. Some of the best memories of my childhood were made in that valley.
Amazing learn something new every day. IT is what works for them and their conditions.
Well that is just neat. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve never seen anything like this in person. Thanks for sharing. If you haven’t already seen it there is a neat video on TH-cam that has vintage footage of making hay this way with an older guy narrator. The old guy was telling his grandson how things were done, one of my favorites seconded to Farm Hand Mike of course lol.
I’ve never seen that exactly before. Very interesting and another great video.
They still put some of these stacks up in the valley just south west of Jackson Hole and in the Bear Lake valley, but it's certainly becoming a lost art. Way back in the day these areas were settled, it was all done by horse team power, the original green energy!
In the bear lake valley my great friend Darly woolstenhumle is the guy who does it I have helped him do it miss it
in the uk back in the 50's we used a fordson major or oliver with a buck rake on the back pushed hay straw to a elevator that lifted up to a stack (called it a rick) this hay was hand lifted to the elevator very english. like the video very much ameican happy days im 76
Bet you didn't expect to see a County over there in the States!
I never knew this was a thing. Thanks for sharing.
Awesome video thank you for the upload I have never seen anything like it
Thank you very much. For year I’ve tried to explain this system to people but they don’t really understand. There is an area up in northern British Columbia where you can still spot the odd beaver slide pushed off on the edge of a field.
We had all that equipment on a outfit I worked for in SE Oregon, but didn't use it. ROUND bales won out. Those guys on the stack had to watch for Rattlesnakes. Thanks for Sharing.
Grew up in the Wind River area in Wyoming. We baled small bales using two New Holland balers. Don't remember the models but they had the "horse head "plungers. Sweeps and slides were still used by some ranches. Our old sweeps and slides had been horse powered and were "mothballed" and stacked in one of the hay meadows.
My best friend from Saratoga was still stacking loose in the 70's
I have never seen this type of haying. Thank you.
Hello Scruffy good to see you in the comments section. Never seen this in our area either. Did see a kind of pull behind horses slide that lifted the hay about 8 ft of the ground and dropped it into a towed behind wagon.
@@robbybachmann332 we had a hay stacker and put up hay with it. We pulled with a tractor it had pickup head that fead it to walking slats that pulled the hay to the top then dropped on a wagon. Then we moved it around on the wagon like the boys on the top were during.
That sounds like the same machine. Very rare indeed that you still use it. Farmhand Mike, their might be video topic for you.....
@@robbybachmann332 that was back in my childhood many, many days ago lol.
@@robbybachmann332 that was back in my childhood many, many days ago lol.
Spent a lot of time in the hole hauling feeds out for the ranchers there. My favorite place in all of Montana
Great video. Amazing process. Thanks for sharing.
Running a buck rake on the Mungas Ranch in the late 60s was a great experience for a kid, swerving back and forth to keep the rake full and catch an even load, and the backwards steering was always a joy! Old 36 chevy chassis. Brings out the memories for an old man. Thanks.
It would be hard to find that many people to do that kind of work, I know that I wouldn’t I’m just to lazy.
Thank you for the video. Thank you Sir
That's super neat. I have never seen anything like this and had no idea that they were stacking hay this way. New things learned everyday. Thanks for showing this.
Didn’t realize they were still stacking hay this way. Very cool, labor intensive , but very cool. Soon to be another lost art in the farming/ranch world. Great video thanks for sharing
i dont think it is actually all that labor intensive.
No kids staying on farm, & small families,
Agree it will soon become a lost item of farming, just as the mom and pop dairies have.
That's all part of the plan, but that's another story.
@@rickbrandt9559 Large numbers of small farms are more difficult for the economy planners to control, that's why they have to squeeze them out.
Things have a tendency to come full circle, tho.
First time I’ve seen anything like this, very interesting
We stacked loose hay for years with a stack frame and a Farmhand F10 mounted on a Cockshutt 40. Worked great, not nearly as much work as it looks.
I’ve seen haystacks 10 years old and the hay was still great.
My dad and grandpa used to do it that way.
@@ronaldgodden4490 that’s for sure, I’ve never seen one that big before.
@@ronaldgodden4490 yes we caught quite a few fish, great time.
I have 5 Cockshutt tractors. 1850, 2-1650 and 2 40s.
Restoring one of the 40s this winter.
It is great to see this. I grew up putting up hay like this on our ranch in the Big Hole about 3 miles from here.. In fact, I was the one operating the scatter rake in this video...driving the 1952 Allis Chalmers tractor. It was fun to do this and takes me back to my childhood.
What is the guy tossing on top of the stack when it gets pushed to the stacker?
@@codytoutges9840 I think it is salt--- or a mineral salt --- that is what we used--
My dad used to talk about putting up hay this way in South Dakota back about 1949. He always talked about an overstacker.
Would like to see a video of hay being stacked with the farmhand F-10, similiar to this style of stacking but just using the loader to stack hay.
My dad would use a f-10 farm hand to stack sorghum feed cheap way to store feed but a slow process.
yes that type of stacking was great the hay kept forever i personaly stacked hay that way for 20 yrs started with the old A Frame farmhand as a small boy
A Datsun pickup! It's awesome what old stuff is still around farms.
My neighbours run Datsuns, they probably have 15 of the damn things.
Mike my Daddy was from S.D. and i have watched my Uncles build hay stacks with a Farmhand Loader on a Farmall H or M tractor and a stack cage
New subscriber here... This was so interesting to watch! Thanks for sharing. Im off to check out some of your other videos. 😀
I was born and raised in Montana. On my step dad's ranch in southeastern Montana, we put up all our hay loose using buck rakes (sweeps) and a farmhand loader. We never used that type of stacker, but my step dad talked about them, calling them "overshot" stackers. He was an old-timer, born in 1901.
The overshot stacker was a different design than the beaver tail.
Thanks Mike for sharing another video of a farming technique I have never seen before. Even before I was going to ask what was pulling up that lift platform you played a detailed segment with the old Chevrolet with a winch doing the job.
I like Mike 😁
That’s pretty country, I hauled cattle out of Wisdom in the early 90s!! To Scandia Kansas Feedyard!! Made several runs up there over 4 years!! That’s old school cool way to put up hay!!!
I grew up on a ranch in northwest Colorado and this is exactly the way we put up hay . The machines used to push the hay around are called sweeps. This is the fastest way there is to put up hay. We didn't have anything on the sides of the stack like they do here, only a backstop. Being the guys on the stack doing the stacking is one of the hardest jobs there is' We used to get what we called 'black leg'' from being on the stack. When you struggle through waist deep hay all day long the dust and dirt would get under your pants and make your legs black. Brings back long gone memories.
This is a fast way to harvest hay ? Cutting it might take an hour ( 20 acres ) and raking it.... a half hour...... baling it.......3 hours...... thats with one person. They have many more people here doing the work. Not very efficient !
I 've seen those stacks of hay in Jackson Hole Wyoming, now know how it is done. We used to put up loose hay into our hay mow. We called a bunch of loose hay a "jag of hay".
Great video Mike, back in the day the Booster Buck was made in Dunlap, Iowa
I see the greatest compost pile maker in history. Ruth stout would have loved this. I want to make a pusher for my lawn tractor. What goes on around us in this world is amazing. Fantastic video. Thanks for the beautiful and educational journey across our nation.
I was doing this long time ago all by hand. We were making a huge round pile of hay super tall… that we needed a ladder to come down and we never used a fence or anything around it. We were just arranging it so well and tight that was waterproof and also was withstanding high winds, rain, snow without any problems. The key is to walk on it so there is no air in it and it will settle pretty good! This is hard work! Good job getting this for us!!!
I haven't seen this with the big ramp like this but I have seen it done with what is called a Derrick, just a giant pole held up by cables that has a crane and grapple on the top of it that lifted the hay to the top of the stack
This brings back nightmares when I had to do it on our very small farm
Great catch Mr Less....
From upstate NY and I did not know of this method.
Excellent sir!
There is actually a TH-cam video of how they used to do this in the tell you what vehicles they use back in the 40s and 50s doing it this way they used to take the gearboxes and turning the gears around I guess to make them go backwards it is kind of cool watching you can search for the old videos on TH-cam here and see a lot of this! I think it’s a pretty cool art doing it looks like it takes a lot of people sad to say round bailing would be a lot faster and more efficient!
Saw this kind of operation in Nebraska a number of years ago.
There is a video on TH-cam or them doing this but you can tell it was filmed in the 60s. They had a different format then you. They showed the whole process. Mowing, raking, gathering, stacking.
I found this video because I wanted to show my wife how we used to stack hay when I was a kid. We had a place in Wyoming. Up until the mid 70's, we stacked hay like this. A couple of the other places in the area kept using beaverslides up until the late 90s. Thanks for posting!
That's something interesting to see right there. Old school is not dead yet. Great video
never seen this before-thx
Thanks for the video Mike. As a previous comment stated I have seen beaver slides around Deer Lodge, but never went by when they were actually putting up hay. Very interesting too see how it is done.
I really appreciate your videos of different farming practices!!!! Thanks Mike!!!!
Saw this on Last American Cowboy when they had that series on around 2009. The Stuckey ranch does it that way, I think they still do. I remember they had a few stacks that year they couldn't get to due to heavy snow which was drifted about 10' deep so they had to buy some hay from another farmer. They didn't look to worried and now I know why, they just use it the next year. Won't see bales last that long.
Sorry? bales lasts over a year to
When I noticed the one guy wearing a full helmet I was really hoping for an end of the day race or at least a little crash up derby lol
СУПЕР. Super 👍 🇰🇿👍🤝🤠🐎🐎🇺🇸👍
Great video Mike 👌
Amazing
We used to stack hay loose back on the cattle ranch in Nebraska too. So glad we got balers now.
Very cool! Could you do a video on the equipment they are using? It's not something you buy at the local dealer
Grew up doing bucket stacks, hay lasted for years even in SD, top foot of a round bale goes bad that’s 50% of the bale. 20 ton bucker stack 6 years later may shrink due to moisture loss but never the rotten stuff bales are made of. Yeah I do round bales now, hate it but quicker easier to mess with in yard if have to move around. It is what it is…
Did you use a stack frame? We used one. Back side was 2 hinged gates that locked together. We used 2 Farmall M tractors with hay bucker loaders to gather windowed hay and lift and dump it into the top of the frame. A couple of guys would walk around inside with forks to pack it down. Got to ride the bucker down when the last load was placed on top. The buckers had a hydraulic wall to push the hay off the tines. North of Bristol SD.
Very interesting this video. In Italy we don't have this machinery and i never see this, but it looks interesting.
I got the low down of how it works from the book "The Last Bus To Paradise" by western author Ivan Doig.
Born and raised here in Montana and didn't know they still hated this way
Wow, I've never seen that before. Very interesting! What's that white stuff they add to the hay?
Never seen that before - looks like a fun way to do hay. Like the homemade pusher rigs.
Their a pickup, usually a dually one ton reversed with loader and hydraulics added
never seen anything like this before its pritty cool and proberly takes up way less space than the bales would do, defo not a job id enjoy with my hayfeeaver being mainly from grass pollen
Really enjoyed this! I gotta let my 97 yr. old father see this. He did it all by hand when he was young.
Interesting to see how it's done in other countries I guess that slide design would have been horses one rather than a winch I do mine by hand but it's on a difernt scale here
those pushers look like the ones used by the Stuckey family
I grew up staking hay in Minnesota in the 40s with a buck rake in front of a tractor and an overshot to lift the hay onto the stack. We would bring the hay into the mow in the winter with a bobsled with a hayrack pulled by horses.
Never seen this type of operation, but quite efficient given the simple equipment.
I was raised on square bales and pole barns, although we did store hay in hip roof barns using a hay fork trolley system.
even on TH-cam there's not much a guy hasn't seen....this was a great find. Thanks for sharing
Hello! Hay good idea!
I had no idea they were still doing that in the lower 48. I have heard some ranchers still use this stacking process in the soft ground areas of Alaska where it’s hard to to get balers.
Brings me back to 1975 when my shoulder would burn from stacking hay with a Farmhand all day.
Thanks for this video! How nostalgic. I remember seeing those giant loads of hay in the Gallatin valley in 1975. Now I know how they did it!
Saw those when I went to Idaho years ago. That good ol stuff is always interesting. A simpler way of life and good people.
We put up hay that way up into the early 90s