Stacking Hay in The Big Hole Valley Montana
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2021
- 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 RUclips but it was even better to see it in person.
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😢.
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!
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 ...
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.
By far the coolest hay making video i have ever seen. Thank you Mike
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.
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.
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--
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 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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
Really enjoyed this! I gotta let my 97 yr. old father see this. He did it all by hand when he was young.
I really appreciate your videos of different farming practices!!!! Thanks Mike!!!!
this is really cool. this is like seeing the missing link in technology between scythe and hay fork and hundreds of laborers, and modern mowers/windrowers/bailers. Progress is necessary with so many mouths to feed on the planet, but i cant help but feel nostalgia for a time i never knew. when life was simple, just men vs the land with little else that mattered.
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
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!
That's something interesting to see right there. Old school is not dead yet. Great video
Pure gold this one mike .what a find thanx for the share
This isn't just engineering-it's poetry in motion.
Great video, drone shots are great. We stacked hay like this in western Nebraska when I was a youngster. Hay sweeps were much like here, old trucks with rear end flipped so direction was opposite from normal and we had 4 gears in the forward direction. Our stacker was all wood and role of the jeep with winch pulling the head up the slide was played by a Farmall M tractor. If the man on the stack wanted the bunch in the back of the stack we'd back up the M at full throttle and hit the brakes just in time to prevent the pulleys on the head from getting "two blocked" with the pulleys at the top of the slide. Dump rakes just like here. We mowed with Farmall H tractors with drawbar mounted 7' sickle bar mower plus a 7 foot trailer mounted sickle bar mower so we could cut a 14 foot swath. Thanks for posting this.
When I was a boy my Gramps would take me out to the lush valleys in the NorthWest corner of Nebraska to watch the hay stacking operations. This video brings back good memories of a bygone era. Glad to see it is still being done. I sure miss you Gramps.
We used to stack hay loose back on the cattle ranch in Nebraska too. So glad we got balers now.
I've driven by these my whole life and always wondered how they work. Thanks for posting!
even on RUclips there's not much a guy hasn't seen....this was a great find. Thanks for sharing
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.
That’s wild. Would’ve liked to have seen some more detailed close-ups of the machinery.
Very cool to see this. I really appreciate the variety with your content. Thank you Mike!
Awesome. Thank you for taking the time out of your trip to do this and thank you to the ranchers for sharing it. Absolutely awesome.
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!
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.
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.
Brings me back to 1975 when my shoulder would burn from stacking hay with a Farmhand all day.
We have been out across this valley. We inadvertently were part of pushing cows down the road. It was great. We knew these big slides were for stacking hay but weren't sure how it all worked. Thanks to your great video we now know how it all gets done. This is one of the best videos we have seen. Thanks so much for posting it! If anyone gets the chance to drive this way coming out of Dillon, great places to stop are Bannock, a ghost town where most of the original buildings are still standing, and Big Hole Battlefield.
This valley is one of the most beautiful parts of Montana.
Well done Mike. Never get tired of your type of videos!
Loved watching them along US 12 near Avon, Montana when I was a kid. So cool. Thanks for getting and sharing this. I just had memories and a few black and white photos.
Thank You for making this video Mike. Seeing it being done the old way was very interesting.
Saw those when I went to Idaho years ago. That good ol stuff is always interesting. A simpler way of life and good people.
I'm a farm raised man of 77 in Missouri and this is a first for me. I had never heard about this method. Good video.
Love this. Saw this back in the 90's when we were visiting Montana. Thank you for sharing.
Boy that brings back memories! When I was haying like that in Eastern Oregon we did not use the beaver slide but most of the ranches had old 4 wheel drive GI trucks with F10 (or F-11, never can remember which one is which) Farmhand loaders on them. Used pickup bodies like this to bunch and bring the hay to the stack. The guy on the big machine would then pick up the bunch and place it on the stack. Usually only had one person on the stack and he just filled in holes or whatever to keep the stack square and flat. In the winter then would use that same loader with a grapple on it to grab the hay out of the stack and load it on a wagon and take it to the cows and hand fork it off. The ranch that I worked on in high school had a JD model B tractor with a sickle bar mower behind it that we did all the cutting with.
One of your best yet ! Keep up the good work!
I'm so glad you stopped to document this, thank you Mike.
I knew of that way but never saw it done. That is quite interesting to watch. A awesome video, Farmhand Mike.
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
That’s amazing watching the old school way they do it. Thanks for sharing this Mike!
Beautiful video Mike. Thanks for taking the time to show us this.
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.
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 that before that is awesome.. Thanks for sharing Mike God Bless...
Thank you for sharing. I didn't know about this technique. Very interesting and a joy to view !
What a wonderful video Mike, and wonderful way of making hay, amazing to watch
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!
Thank you for this video. Had I not stopped by, I now see wonderful time from the past. Thanks for your video. Noel, South East Queensland Australia.
This method was very nice to see. I have never seen this before or even heard of it. Thank you for sharing.
A New Englander from Maine
I've never seen this before. Thanks for putting the video together. Here in the Midwest all I've ever known is square bales, round bales, and corn based silage for feed.
Nice one Mike a really interesting video its good that you're able to get the old way of farming on your travels 👍🏴
Never seen this before 🤯🤯 quite clever!
I've seen hay bound and stooked. Threshed with steam engine driven machinery but nothing like this. Thank you for taking the time to share this 👍🏼👍🏼
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’ve seen this before but this is by far the best video on the subject I’ve seen so far
Thanks a whole lot world for the video. It is pretty amazing to watch how you Americans used to store hay.
I am also a hay farmer and produce for export. We grow Rhodes grass. For me it is very informative because I found a way to store the hay for much longer without using chemical hay guards etc. I am going to try and sprinkle salt on the hay before getting it baled. I am sure that will rid me off the chemicals we use.
However, I am so excited after watching such an interesting video. Hats off to you bro.
If you want I can send you my videos and photos.
NO never seem anything like this befor, cool through. Keep it coming
Can't say I can remember ever seeing it done like this in Australia when I was growing up on farms
I have never seen this before, thanks for s sharing man
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
Well that is just neat. Thanks for sharing.
Yes i did Mike. I grew up and live in Minnesota, but back in the late 70s i worked on a ranch south of Drummond Mt and this was the way hay was put up if it wasn't small square baled. I could hop on one of them buck rakes and show you how it's done. Like riding a bike, you don't forget. On our farm in Minnesota we did have 2 30A Heston stackers. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Well you’re just a hay stacking professional then. That’s awesome!
@@farmhandmike well Mike it was fun when I was young for sure. Stayed in Farming in Minnesota here. Spend most of my time in an International LT now hauling corn and soybeans now, but i still have a brother who lives out in Montana on a neighboring ranch. Like you say it's all big Round bales now.
This is so Awsome. Keep up the good job Mike. Love you channel
Wow, thanks for the video, great to see how they do it.
Never knew this was going on!
Thanks for edumacatin me Mike!
New to me. Thanks for sharing. I bet those boys could plow a mean path through a deep snow. The neighborhood children would love that pile. Thanks Mike.
Soooo cool! Thanks for posting!
Probably one of my favorite videos I’ve seen you do Mike! Grew up in Dillon, used to go out to friends ranches and hang out riding the beaver slides and rakes and climbing on the stacks. Moving the slides was always cool, I remember one getting buried into the banks of a creek we were moving across. Got some extended family up near Deer Lodge still putting up hay this way, though they are using some round bales now days. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
Saw your comment and hd to reply. In the summer of 1975 I worked outside of Dillon on the Hansen Ranch. It was mostly sheep then. We made stacks like this all summer with the exact same equipment. I was always working on top of the stacks. Do you know anything about the Hansen Ranch. The owner was Leonard Hansen. Thanks!
@@andyrobinson339 I know the name, but don’t know much more than that. Been out of Dillon for 30 years or so
Best video of the "beaver slide" on RUclips and I've seen most nearly all of the others. Thanks for sharing
Heard of it but never watched it being done. Thanks for the vid!!
My Great grandfather could build anything he had seen or could dream up, and he built a stacker fork for the tractor, and took two horse drawn rakes and mated them together, that's how we put up hay from the 70's to the early 90' when I bought the place.. I did it the same way for the first two years, then I made enough money to buy a larger used tractor, and used bailer at an auction.. We still use the old stacker to feed with though.. Still starts when its 50°below, with a shot of ether and a couple cranks..
I really enjoyed watching this old style of putting up hay. My son lives in Great Falls Montana
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
Very cool. The vehicles used look like something out of the mad Max movie, but effective at doing the job. Thx for showing us. Very interesting to see different methods.
A marvelous landscape !
Grew up in the country and never seen hay stacks like this. I hope to see it in person someday.
Awsome video never seen anything like this I feel like this takes us back to the good ol days
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!
Thanks. Never heard of putting up hay like this before. Very interesting !!
Awesome video thank you for the upload I have never seen anything like it
I’ve never seen that exactly before. Very interesting and another great video.
I grew up in northern Minnesota and we used a John Deere overshot hay stacker in the 50s and early 60s. My dad and I could put up two 10 ton stacks in a good day. Couldn’t do that with a baler and the hay was protected all year. We took turns working in the stack and running the sweep rack. Was hard work in the stack in 80-90 degree weather.
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
this brings back a lot of memories of my youth!
This was much more enjoyable to watch than round balding!! Thanks, I just subbed....
Thanks
I remember back in the day they used to put up loose hay like this they had a thing they pulled behind the wagon it was like a pickup and it coiled to Hay up and put it up there and you piled it on a wagon with forks then you use a rope and pulled the wagon up into the barn and slung the loose hay around that way my grandparents did it that way
First time I’ve ever seen it done this way, awesome way to do it.
Never heard of that before, but it looks pretty interesting😉👍
Nice video again👍👍