View From The Cab

By David Tollefson, Columnist

One of my favorite ag commentators is John Phipps, farmer/columnist from Illinois.

I’ll let him describe his family farm:

“I am a sixth-generation farmer who holds a degree in Chemical Engineering, a minor in Economics and served as a nuclear engineer from 1970-75. Jan (his wife), Aaron (his son) and I farm 2100 acres near Chrisman, Ill. Aaron joined our operation in 2008. I have written humor and commentary for Farm Journal and Top Producer for 20 years. I was the host of US Farm Report from 2005 to 2014 and now serve as commentator. I speak often to farm and agribusiness groups on topics from risk analysis to professional development.”

The above title is memorable for me, since years ago a neighbor bought a wire-tie John Deere small square baler that used wire to tie the bales. Of course, that was not sustainable into the future, because small square balers are pretty much a thing of the past, giving way to round bales tied with twine, net-wrap or plastic covers and also medium square bales and large square bales, usually tied with very stout plastic twine and weighing up to a ton or more.

But the leftover wire from those early round bales could be used in so many ways. Before the neighbor bought the self-tie square baler, I was along on a different neighbor’s Case wire-tie baler where two people, one seated on each side of the rear of the baler, inserting the wire (at this point I checked with my brother who often sat on the other side of that VERY dusty machine). We think the wire was inserted from the left side, and the person on the other side inserted the bare wire into the loop at the other end of each of the two wires, as the bale continued to be made and eventually dropped off onto the ground. OK, here’s the story by John Phipps:

Scholars often divide history into segments based on the technology. There was the Stone Age, Iron Age, Age of Aquarius and Misinformation Age, for examples.

People do the same with our lives, and farmers are people. Based on technology of last resort, we can look back from the Zip-tie Age, Duct Tape Age and Tarp Strap Age to one of the longest, the Baling Wire Age.

Recall the 60-pound square bales barely restrained by soft iron wire. The wire-tie baler changed more than just how we fed forage; it created a whole family of applications for the wire biproducts. Removed by finding the easy corner to pull off, the hoops were doubled to form figure-8 coils we tidily stored. Or tossed as loops into a spare feed room.

ENDLESS USES

For much of this stash of steel bindings, its useful life was just beginning. Being soft, exposed metal, it would be a relatively short existence of rapid oxidation (rust).

From this trove, ingenious minds fashioned inventive splices, fasteners, hold-downs, ties, connectors and substitutes for machinery parts to get by or to keep going.

From muffler hangers to broken belt buckles, there were few problems baling wire couldn’t tackle, sometimes successfully. Indeed, the term “haywire” originates from such repairs pushed past their limits.

The largest and most successful re-use of baling wire was the most fitting: to help contain the animals it helped feed. In an era of ubiquitous farm livestock, fences of all types divided farmsteads. The cheapest was woven wire connected with staples designed to slowly work out, calling for baling wire to refasten the fence to posts.

All those enclosures required gates, some of which swung on hinges for several months after installation. The final configuration, however, was baling wire connections at both ends, which allowed the gate to open either way. The wires at the swinging end were tied and retied as the gate was used, producing fatigue failure while rusting.

The result was short kinks that barely met but would if forced. Unlike fancy-schmancy zip-ties, baling wire was a many-timer. Usually one time too many, in fact.

During the 1950s an animal scientist desperate for a thesis topic calculated at any time, several million animals were only 1” of kinked wire away from going AWOL.

POSTS AND PASTS

While this ode to baling wire might seem a little over the top, consider this: when balers switched to twine and/or large bales, small livestock producers melted away, farm lots sprouted corn and beans and fences were gradually ripped out.

Baling wire tied farms not just to posts but to pasts.

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Just today, in my small farm operation, I used a piece of old electric fence wire to tie up the power-take-off on my snow blower as I unhooked it (for the season, I surely hope).

But I really prefer zip-ties to baling wire, as a matter of fact. I buy multi-colored assortments of small zip-ties to identify which hydraulic connectors should go where. I use heavy-duty zip-ties to tie tongue hitches at an angle where they can be hooked up more easily. I keep some of those in my tractor tool box. You never know when you’re going to need them!

Since I last wrote a column, the landscape I look at from my house has dramatically changed! I can walk from my house to the garage on dry concrete or grass safely, without fear of slipping and falling. I can walk across the streets in Starbuck at my favorite eating spots without fear of falling.

I enjoy hearing the geese fly over on their way northwest. Robins are around. The deer (those that survived the winter) can more easily find food without having to eat pine needles or the neighbor’s round hay bales.

I drove the tractor into one of my fields this afternoon and dug down with my loader bucket. That particular spot did not appear to have any frost! Spring, here we come!

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Please contact David Tollefson with thoughts or comments on this or future columns at: adtollef@hcinet.net