The ancestor of modern round balers. I used one for years 60's/70's. Could pump out over 1000 a day. It was slow compared to small square balers but had the advantage of being waterproof - no mad carting panic to beat the thunderstorms! We used edible flax string no problems, bales stacked like pipes against end poles in the shed. Matched with the Allis WD45 tractor (with the oil lubed hand clutch and live PTO) it was years ahead of its time. Took considerable mechanical knowledge to set up properly but gave little trouble thereafter. Some never mastered it. As others have pointed out, the rows were best raked loosely together, or side by side. Thanks for the fond memories Proudhawk!
We had a major breakdown with our square bailer (we never did own a round bailer) in the early 1980’s and borrowed one of these from an old neighbor. It hadn’t been used in years but that old man knew how to set it up and adjust it properly so it made nice bales. We pulled it with a Wd45 and the hand clutch made it easy but it was so slow and tedious stopping every 10-15 ft. We three boys finally got sick of that and decided spending hours in the hot sun, walking a hundred miles picking up all those little bales wouldn’t be fun. So we got the old push rake from loose hay stacking days out of the top of the shed, put it on a 1950 JD B we had. Then we just pushed all the hay into the center of the field in a pile and used that thing as a stationary baler. With one of us taking turns feeding it with a pitch fork while the other two loaded the bales on a wagon as fast as it spit them out. Needless to say we were plenty happy when we got the parts in to repair our old JD 214 T square bailer even though we still had to take turns riding the wagon stacking square bales as they came off the bailer. Later we got a newer JD kicker bailer and thought we had as my dad would say “the world by the butt on a downhill pull”😂
In 1962 I was 4 and started helping my dad bale hay with one of these pulled by a Farmall H for many years. He had to stop each time the arm swung down and put the tractor in neutral, then engage the PTO again to tie and eject the bale, then once again put it into gear to move. That baler took a LOT of maintenance. I remember how fascinated I was about the bale ejecting. Never got tired of watching that. Later my grandfather bought an Allis Chalmers tractor that had the hand clutch. Huge difference!
Ah, the good old Allis Chalmers toolbox jump seat. I spent many hours riding one on our D19. The Allis tractor with the Power Director is the only tractor I would want to use with a Roto Bailer. You could use another brand, but it will never be as perfect a tool for that job as the Allis.
Dad had a Roto-baler pulled by an IH 460 when I was growing up. By the time I was in high school I was running it and I shudder about what a death trap that combination was! The 460 had no fenders and had a frying pan seat that sometimes acted as sort of a catapult but did have independent PTO so stepping on the clutch did not shut off the PTO. Actually, he had two of the balers, the second one was bought on a farm auction that was newer and in better condition. Both were around the place until there was a family cleanup auction in 2000. The sound of the twine arm dropping was key to stopping. Eventually the muscle memory was such that everything just happened in time with the sounds from the baler. That combination was retired 40 years ago this month when he bought a used John Deere 410 "big" round baler. It's bales were about 4 feet wide by almost 5 feet tall. These days I bale with a John Deere 4450 tractor and JD 566 baler. I don't miss the 460 or the Roto-baler at all.
Best thing about the roto, is you could feed it anything from grass to haygrazer, sticks, and cardboard. If it could be fed in, it would bale it for you.
Dad had one, we worked on it a few times. Added tines to the pickup conveyer, didn't have to run it as close to the ground. Bales would take more wet weather than square. We saved the twine and rolled it up into balls to reuse (emergency use, run out of binder twine). We could bale 80 bales in 20 minutes. Powered ours with an AC CA series. Had the hand clutch. Worked good for us, just heavy to haul around.
Years ago, I baled thousands of bales with one of these. Pulled behind an old Case diesel tractor. Worked pretty well. They obviously don't stack nicely like square bales but they roll out nice when feeding.
I'm a 72 old retired Farmer and have baled tens of thousands of bales with allis baler, my best day was 1400 bales. It was a good baler ins day, but you really needed a allis with live pto, to max the number of bales you could make. I used a WD45 on it and ran the engine wide open in third gear and used the hand clutch to conrol my speed and the amount of hay on the apron. you could slip that clutch all day long and it worked good., running in oil with steel plates in it.
These were very popular in Southwest Iowa when I was a kid in the 60's and 70's. My dad had one and it made a lot of bales. Then of course you had to go through the field with a lowboy, or sled of some kind and pick up the bales so there was quite a bit of work with one of these balers. As other posters have said these bales shed the rain better than square bales so we stacked them near the cattle lots for convenience and the stack made a windbreak.
Yes, the sound of the twine arm dropping as Sam Moore said - I haven't heard that in over 40 years. My Dad was really sold on this baler. I was embarrassed by it as we were pretty much the only farmers that used it. I also hated handling the bales. They were much harder to pick up by hand than a square bale where you just had to grab the twine for handles. We use hay hooks. Does anyone remember hay hooks? The major advantage that Dad saw in the round bale was its much better ability to shed rain. When I left home, he got one of the early Vermeers.
@@garydabb4108 Cool! Your comment inspired me to look online for a hayhook. I had to scroll all the way to the bottom nearly before I found one that looked like one of our favorites. It had a wooden handle that was open on the side. You could whirl it around in your hand, not that I can see why that was very important, but I recall doing it - in between bales. I think the one in the picture is slightly longer than I remember any of ours being. But it was over 40 years ago that I last used one. I miss those days. Best regards, Sam
Having a live PTO tractor is best for these balers. Otherwise you are shifting and clutching twice for each bale. For a 1000 bale field, you will shift and clutch 2000 times! Perfect adjustment is the key to successful operation. There are several limit levers and correct timing between components that are necessary for good operation. If you carefully read the manual, and fully understand how it works, you can quickly fix any problems. Too many novice operators don't take the time to understand how the baler functions, or read the manual. One problem a lot of operators have is the twine knife not cutting properly. It's important to have it perfectly sharp, using a "wet" grinding stone. Sharpening it on a regular grindstone can easily overheat the metal and take the temper out. Also important to have the knife installed bevel side DOWN, as clearly specified in the manual. Lots of operators install it with the bevel up, which will lead to poor cutting. Windrows should not be overly thick. Having the windrow the full width of the feeder is critical. Alfalfa is generally the easiest to bale. As is oat or wheat straw. Longer and "ranker" hay (like prairie or brome) needs to be DRY. Heavy-stemmed hays are best windrowed with crimping rolls, to crush the stems and encourage drying. The bale forming chamber is formed by the belts running in opposite directions. When the hay first enters into the bale chamber, it needs to "double-back" on itself to start rolling a bale. With coarser and damper material, this "doubling-back" action won't happen properly, and will cause the belts to jam. These machines make the best bales. Especially for small livestock feeders. They unroll easily in the feeder, and are easily carried. The hay is gently rolled into the bale, and not "mashed-up" like a square bale.
Grand dad had one for years he bought it new.his c had a hand clutch so the pto would not stop.baled 1000 of bales with it.hard to load but easy to stack.
I too have spent many an hour doing this very thing. Sure, not very "convenient" compared to todays big round and square bales with automation but in their day a very competent machine. The round bale shed moisture much better than a square one in wet areas. By rolling the hay instead of plunging it like a square baler more leaf and protein was saved in the bale. No complicated knotter was required as the twine was just wrapped around the bale and then cut. The real life saver when running a roto-baler was a live PTO where the PTO would remain spinning while clutching and bringing the tractor to a stop to tie and eject the bale. A lot of work on the old WC. Handling and stacking was a bit more bothersome as hay hooks were required. Long live the Roto-baler!
Steve Evans that knotter on the square baler was a real rude Goldberg contraption. It normally worked great but if it got out of time you were in for some frustration. I never had to bale with the small round baler but I put thousands of balers through our AC square baler. Dad swore by the weathering ability of the small round bales!
I remember driving the tractor in the field when I was 6 or 7 to pickup these bales, my two brothers who were older stacked them on a hay rack. An early predecessor to the current large round balers
My grandparents used a large sheet of steel and stacked them five across by five long and pyramid stacked. The steel had been curled at the front like a toboggan. Grandpa used big hooks (like fish market hooks) to snag the bales. That man had a grip like a steel trap.
Oh man, I used to run one of those. The automation built into it was amazing, as along as it worked. When it didn't, it was a nightmare. Also with hay as think as this your leg about fell off holding the clutch every 20 feet.
Not very effecient from a production point of view, but laid out the basic operating principles for all modern day large round bakers, belt style. Years ahead of its time.
My neighbor had one AC cigar baler ,he pull it with a ford Ferguson tractor, that look kinda look like a Ford 8N tractor. The AC cigar roller worked ok the neighbor only had 6 head of cattle and 2 ponies for his grandchildren. He put them on wagon with a pitch fork.
No child is safe riding on an open tractor at that age. They can nod off ( fall asleep ) in 30 seconds. I know........Its happened to my boys more then once.....when they were ages 7 and 8. Tie them on !
I know of a farmer who was swallowed by his round baler in July 2020. No helpers due to Covid, working after dark, tried to unplug hay, got sucked in, was found in the chamber by neighbours, tractor was running a full RPM :-(
No having good full windows is how you make a good uniform bale. You have to fill up the chute and then put enough twine on. This guy is doing the best job that I have seen yet on you tube with this baler. I used to run one of these when I was young and then haul it. Starting using hooks to haul then just put hands in the ends.
I remember many a hot afternoon dragging one of these contraptions thru the field. If patience was not your thing you either aquire it or shove the thing in a ditch. In my case, it wasn't mine so I was stuck running it and to make it even worse, once it was behind a John Deere B. I got so I could hit the brakes and pull it out of gear. Then hit the hand clutch let everything come to a halt and shift letting it coast back a bit to give it room to get it all to speed. Down hill worked the best, just coast and stop but up hill was torture. Fourth cutting (light) was fine but first cutting was horrible. 5 feet then wham! Another 5 feet, wham! Old boy had an early WD that the transmission just howled. Then the valves needed ground in the engine and it was so bad you had to choke it when you let out on the clutch to get rolling again in the heat of summer. Then it got so worn out that you had to clutch the PTO after it ejected the bale or the elevator clutch would just rack it self. When they were new they made progress slow. I always hoped the shed he kept them in over the winter would burn down but finally, he up graded to a 14T and a 3000 Ford. Then there was picking the things up out of the field. A pop up bale loader worked wonderful but you could roll an ankle in the barn fairly easy walking across them if you were not careful. So in short, they truly SUCKED from about every aspect.
Worked okay behind a Cockstutt 30 with a live PTO but with an Allis WD-40 you had to stop, shift to neutral, release the clutch to finish the bale, depress the clutch, shift back into gear and start off again EVERY time the da;& arm dropped!
Good old memories for me. I bailer thousands upon thousands round bales when raising cows. Good baler but you had to stop to allow it to tie the twine around the bale.
Cool video. I never knew these things existed until I started seeing them on YT! They look a bit tricky to run. How do you know when to tie the bale and eject it? Or does the machine handle that? And if you sell your hay, are the customers ok with it as far as handling the bales? Hope you don't mind my asking, just curious.
ya, it looks like the operator has to stop and activate knotter and eject the bale? All that stopping and starting would drive you crazy! Or is this machine in the video not working right?
Perhaps a PITA by the standards of today, but in the years after WW II, the Rotobaler was a modern marvel - when you consider the alternative of handling loose hay.
What is t he driver doing , at the first half? always stopping and .... - is the PU Conveyor jamming or what? interesting seeing the quick release / ejection - why can't modern ones do that. I run rings around modern Round balers with a high Cap. small square baler - accumulator has a problem keeping up though!
Just like a new one, you have to stop to let it tie the bale and eject it. The pickup is stopping while it ties also, similar to the the way that old New Holland square balers stop the packer fork while they tie a bale.
bessert farms its an antique worth money have a good day buddy all in all very interesting look at the Mormons new Holland built them a bailer to pull with horses its just life adios amigo from santa fe n.m
It's a nice Bailer... but no disrespect intended whatsoever but I don't think it's safe to have a child on the tractor when you're working and you're looking over at the bailer if your kid fell off you may accidentally run them over without even knowing.
So you have too stop to make a bale every time? Boy that would make for a long day baling!!! With a square baler you hook a wagon behind the baler & load & go at the same Time!
I think you've doubled up the windrow, so they are twice as full as they should be..., fattest hay row I've seen on U-tube, with a 65 yr old machine, is goofy...
I didn't realise you had to stop for every bale with a Roto-Baler! That removes all desire to go with one of those; far too much wear on a tractor clutch. I'll stick with small squares and large rounds.
looks like a PITA having to stop for each bale to shoot out. if it was a large round bale then id say yeah... but for puny little bales? I'd rather stick with square baling 70 pounders...
The Rotobaler could make bales up to 80 pounds. It is a bit of a pain to operate, by modern standards, but remember - it was developed shortly after WW II and was a HUGE improvement over handling loose hay.
Good god, I had to turn off when I saw that little tiny kid on the tractor. Yeah, you know what you're doing and a skilled worker, but it's so dangerous have a kid on that tractor, it is not made for anyone to sit there like that. It's alright for the adult driver sat in the seat, but one bump when the kid isn't holding on and they could be under those back wheels in a second and killed. It happens a frightening amount of times and farm safety is terrible as it is. I wan't allowed even in the cab of a tractor until I was 13 and never let my kids anywhere near baling equipment.
Although it could be considered dangerous. I see this more as a father spending time with his children and getting them interested in farming and machinery. By the time these kids are teenagers they will possible know more then most adults on food production. And by the time they are middle aged adults they will look back fondly on those hot summer days where Dad took them out on his tractor.
great video but would not have kid on the open tractor or walking around the tractor while it is running. I know of 2 kids that where killed doing that.
For the parents that have to live the rest of there lives wishing they could have done things different I will not say. It is better to be safe than to bury your childern
believe me, almost every farmer back then had kids around who could get hurt a thousand different ways... in the early 50s where I lived, the Government tried to take over and us kids had to get working papers thru the school even working for our folks, most never paid any attention to them, we were allowed to work something like ten hours a week, hell, that was just one days work.
I rode on a tractor from about 2 years old, Dad couldnt have got me off the tractor for anything. I think given a careful operator , you stand a better chance getting hurt doing other things kids do.
So did I. Want to see my scar? Got mine at 13 riding on a disc harrow. Then couple of years later got ran over after hand cranking C Farmall that was left in gear. And get this, I knew a guy who lost an arm in one of these balers. Cliff is spot on.
@@reyd6119 dont crank tractors left in gear ,and dont ride on implements.... and dont stick arm into moving hay baler---all have nothing to do with what i posted and are common sense
