National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales preserves and celebrates the sound and moving image heritage of Wales, making it accessible to a wide range of users for enjoyment and learning. Its film collection reflects every aspect of the nation’s social, cultural and working life across the 20th century, giving a fascinating insight into Welsh filmmaking, both amateur and professional.
This film is part of Free
Balers: Welger and Jones
Horses for courses and different balers for different bales. At Maesmawr Hall, a Welger produces very loose bales, a Jones very compact ones.
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Overview
It is dry, thirsty work, this hay-making, which is a blessing as rain at such a time can be disastrous. Two balers – and a side rake which arranges the hay in rows for the baler to pick up – are out in the sunshine at Maesmawr Hall farm, near Welshpool, home of the Trants. One, a Welger produces very loose bales which are pitch-forked onto a trailer and then into a large barn; the other, a Jones (manufactured in Mold – see title 'Golden Harvest'), produces very tightly packed bales.
Ion Trant of Dovea Farm, Tipperary, Ireland, studied agriculture in Canada and then took up a post at the Welsh Plant Breeding Station, Aberystwyth, where he met his future wife, Janet Owen of Maesmawr Hall, Welshpool, both of them working on improved grasses for upland farms with George Stapledon. The Trants farmed at Maesmawr Hall, the adjoining farm Cefn Du, and Esgairdraenllwyn at Llaithddu, Llandrindod, where Janet bred Welsh Black cattle crossed with Herefords. Ion created the "Country Close-Up" series for children (BBC 1956-62) – an extract seen here without live narration - to foster an understanding of the countryside. As John Kerry, he wrote a column for the Montgomeryshire Express.