NW Illinois Stephenson county | I grew up baling with a JD 116 Wire Baler. The next year after Dad had a heart attack he hired my brother and I for 1 cent a bale. I could barely roll them in the hay mow and my brother was 4 years older so he could do more. There were 2 sizes of bales so Dad changed to the shorter size for us. We baled 6-7000 bales a year along with some straw. Doing straw was fun due to the lighter bales. The baler would bale it, but you still did not bale the hay wet because they were then very heavy. It was run with a Wisconsin VF4 engine. When it was hot it was a bear to get started. Dad mowed the hay, my brother raked the hay and I drove on the baler most of the time with a 1946 JD A and later with a JD G that Dad bought. Dad made a hay hoist powered by a JD LUC motor from an older block baler. I mowed the middle mow of 3 and my brother Mike did the back mow. So all Dad had to do when sticking the forks to 8 bales at a time was pull a rope to run the hoist. I had to get out of the way when the 8 bales went overhead to the back mow. Dad died before I was 16 so my older brother and younger sister kept the far a going until I was 18 because I wanted to farm. I rebuilt the wire tying mechanism.
It took my JD dealer a couple months to get the parts some as far as North Dakota and Minnesota. A few years later I purchased a JD 336 kicker baler so I could bale alone when need be. The JD 116 Wire Baler is still in my machine shed with flat tires and a stuck engine where it will stay until I die.
We always had wire to tie gates shut. Our goats spread them around so all you had to do was walk a little and you had all you needed. Dad used to get $5-10 for years' worth of wire, then they would take it for free for a while, and them we dumped it into a dead creek bed. Lots of good memories!
Edited by Jim Dandy 6/28/2025 16:49
 (1946 JD A (full).JPG)
 (New1946JDAandOrieOtte-Copy-Copy(full) (full).jpg)
 (Orie and Mike baler with remote steering (full).jpeg)
Attachments
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 1946 JD A (full).JPG (122KB - 1 downloads)
New1946JDAandOrieOtte-Copy-Copy(full) (full).jpg (54KB - 1 downloads)
Orie and Mike baler with remote steering (full).jpeg (66KB - 4 downloads)
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JD116Wire Baler.
