Your description is apt. Hardest labor I ever did. Partly because the people in charge insisted that the bales be stacked neatly, like puzzle blocks, on the wagon before heading to the barn for storage in the mow. I would afterward see trucks loaded at other farms helter skelter and think to myself I picked to wrong farm.
[[I would afterward see trucks loaded at other farms helter skelter and think to myself I picked to wrong farm.]]
Lol- yup- We had an ‘automated picker upperer’ (can’t remember the name of it now, but were pretty stocked when we finally got one) that would shoot the bales about 20 feet to the hay trailer- and we’d have to basically catch them/direct them to the right spot- and they would come at us pretty quick too- Got knocked off my feet a few times- aint easy directing 70+ lbs shot at ya from a hay canon lol-
With wire as well. The “insisting” is not to be organized, but to minimize the labor needed to handle them. Farmers are not stupid, contrary to what Hollyweird sells. Randomly piled bales on the trailer are harder to deal with when unloading than stacked bales. Especially since elevators are typically used to move the bales to heights used for large stacks inside/outside the barn. When I was about 10, I think, my neighbor devised a bale thrower, that received a shortened bale (about half size of the 80-lbr) and propelled it up onto the trailer/wagon, now built with high sides and now randomly piled. Handling became much easier, as no human trailer stackers were needed, and unloading was simply a fork for dragging onto the elevator, where the trailer could be raised. Also, no stacking was needed in the barn, and the hay dried out much quicker, rather than possibly starting barn fires using the old wire bales that were heavily compressed.