Making hay when the sun shines... - part 3 - baling rectangular bales

The baling of hay is really a neat product of engineering - from picking up the hay off the ground, to smashing it into the bales, to tying knots around them, sending them out down the chute, placing them onto the accumulator, and then dumping a load of 10 bales from the accumulator onto the ground. (Patti writing...) When I was a child, the hay dumped from the baler onto the ground, and then men came and picked it up later to put it onto a truck or hay wagon. Then we got a "ramp" type thing that extended the output chute of the baler up to a hay wagon that was being towed behind, and folks on the hay wagon grabbed the bales and stacked them. I was definitely NOT a desired helper, but was placed into duty when no one else was available! I remember that when the baler was turning a corner, you had to judge well to ensure that a bale didn't fall off the end of the chute when it was not over the edge of the wagon - so sometimes you needed to pull one a little early to prevent it from falling to the field. Then my other memory was loading a large wagon of hay with help from two boys who were younger than I (I think Jimmy was driving the baler). As we turned to head to the barn to unload, the wagon hit a bump and half the load dumped back off into the field as we had not packed it solidly enough - UGH!!!

Anyway, now there is this "accumulator" which I find fascinating!

Jimmy baling the orchard grass hay

Jimmy on the tractor, a little view of the baler, and the accumulator, on the alfalfa field.

We have a number of videos of the process, but this one has just a minute of it that I think you would enjoy: https://youtu.be/WKicLy_-VXo

If you want to see more... only for the serious hay-making aficionados among my readers!
Filled accumulator and dump - alfalfa - https://youtu.be/QMqldXGqtWE
Several rounds - includes dump, knotting, picking up from ground - https://youtu.be/cCXOqBBD5G4
Accumulator manual delay dump - https://youtu.be/n49Vn2ylgKQ
7 minutes of alfalfa baling - https://youtu.be/ZeBt0s17Wco