By Gordy Schultz, Oliver Hay Equipment

1967 Oliver Equipment Buyers Guide

It is time for hay.  I think.  As many of you know I run a custom baling business in the summer.  I should be well into baling the first cutting by now.  Unfortunately we have had so much rain in Wisconsin this spring we are wondering if we will even be able to plant corn and beans.  Weather is always the biggest variable in farming.  We hope that we have the right amount of rain and sun to make a good crop.  Often we have one extreme or the other.  Hopefully next month I will be reporting from the cab of my baling tractor.  It looks like a I will be running a CaseIH 100,000th Edition MX 255  Magnum and LBX 332 Big Baler, this year. 

One place the sun always shines for hay making is in sales literature. I would like to follow my Oliver plow article with a review of the Oliver hay line from 1967.

Oliver entered the hay making equipment market in 1929 with the acquisition of rake making company. The companies big break into the market came in 1943 with the acquisition of the Ann Arbor Machine Company. Ann Arbor started building hay presses in 1882. During the 1920's Ann Arbor developed a baler that was a farmer favorite. The Ann Arbor and New Holland balers were the best known brands in the industry. After Oliver acquired Ann Arbor, the company moved all hay equipment production to Ann Arbor’s Shelbyville, Illinois plant. The Oliver/Ann Arbor plant produced balers, side rakes, mowers, loaders, spreaders, corn harvesters and seeding equipment. White Farm Equipment closed the Shelbyville, plant in 1970, consolidating its products into other WFE plants in Southbend, Indiana and Charles City Iowa.

The 1960's were Olivers biggest years in hay equipment production. The company offered several mowers, rakes and square balers. Forage equipment was offered in the 1950's and did not return until 1969. During the 1970's Oliver offered a pull type and a self propelled forage harvester. This literature is "rare" and I hope to feature it in a future TTT. I just have to find copies of the forage literature to add to my collection first.

Haying was a big part of Olivers line. The company offered one of the first mower condtioners. In 1967 Oliver introduced the 437 mower conditioner. The 437 offered a 9ft cut with mowing up to 8 mph. Oliver called it high speed haying at its best. The 437 was a new concept to farmers of the 1960's. Until 1967 from the begging of mechanized hay mowing a sickle bar cutter had been used. Later a cripper was developed to speed up haying. As time went on they were paired togther. Oliver was one of the first companies to team the concepts together in one machine.

Today the mower conditioner is the best known hay mowing machine on the market. 40 years it not in existence. Hay mowing was done with a sickle bar. As stated above a second pass was made with a crimper that "conditioned" the hay to help it dry. A normal hay operation would include a first mowing pass, then a second pass with a crimper, a third pass with a hay rake and a fourth pass a baler. Haying was allot of field hours. In order to help speed up the mowing process Oliver developed a Direct-Line drive crimper. In 1967 the crimper became a low cost alternative to the mower conditioner. Oliver’s direct drive crimper allowed the for a tractor to run both a sickle mower and crimper from the pto shaft. Oliver’s 351 sickle mower was attached to the tractors 3pt ( an Oliver 1650 at 66 hp) and the 37 crimper’s pto was attached to the 351 mower teaming the two machines togther for one pass mowing.

Oliver offered several hay rake options. The newest product for 1967 was a tedder. Today hay tedders are a common tool for laying out freshley mowed hay to dry. The tedder has helped speed up haying from 5 days to 3 days. That is a big plus in the summer when 5 rain free days can be hard to come buy. In 1967 this implement was brand new and probably a big surprise to farmers. The tedder did not become a popular tool in Wisconsin until the 1980's. Oliver had it in the 1960's. If hay is mowed in the morning a farmer will use the tedder that afternoon to spread out the hay. On the second day the farmer will rake the dry hay into windrows. On the third day the hay is ready to bale. Oliver called their tedder the "Haymaker" . It was ideal for conditioning and aerating heavy crops of hay. The Haymaker was offered as 16ft or 10ft 8 inches model.

Another interesting rake from Oliver was the 105 Wheel Rake. Wheel rakes are ideal for rough fields. Oliver 105 offered 5-7 wheels that could be set at 40 or 48 inches. The rake did not require a pto, belts or gears. It offered a high speed raking option in rough and stony field, because the wheels fingers lifted the hay up with out touching the ground. The 105 wheel rake was ideal for raking grass hay.

For a thick alfalfa crop it is hard to beat the traditional basket side delivery rake. The ground-driven 207 rake from Oliver was a sound machine. Oliver’s key marketing points on the rake was its short coupled design, a ground driven basket from both wheels and offset wheels that allowed for the 90 evenly spaced teeth could follow ground contours without digging in or skipping.

Believe it or not, Oliver was well known for its balers. Almost thirty years have passed since the last Oliver/White baler was produced. It would be a rare sight to see one today as most have been retired. In their day Oliver balers were right up there with New Holland, International and John Deere square balers. Oliver had a good baler in the Ann Arbor design. Ann Arbor was well respected in haying and that respect carried on to Oliver , when it purchased the baler company. In 1967 Oliver produced four balers in the Ann Arbor plant. The 520 was a popular baler on the average sized farm. Olivers big selling point on the 520 was the Ann Arbor roto-flow feed. The 520 was a poular machine with dairy farmers because it could be equipped with a thrower. The Oliver 14 bale thrower used a rubber cleated propeller roll to launch bales up to 70 lbs and 36 inches long into a trailing wagon. The 14 thrower offered tractor belt speed control so that a driver could spot bales into any part of the wagon. Fingertip, hydraulic directional control also helped baling around tight turns. The Oliver 620 and 720 balers also offered Roto-Flow feeding. These larger balers did not offer the bale throwing option. The 520, 620 and 720 offered two tie twin or wire baling. Oliver’s big three tie 103 wire baler was built for commercial hay growers. The 103 could produce bales up to 180 lbs and was powered by a 36 hp engine.

Oliver offered a complete hay line through 1974. Many of the hay tools were also offered as Minneapolis-Moline pieces. The M-M hay line was painted red and not the traditional M-M gold. I have been told that the hay line was produced for a short time in 1975 as WHITE. The WHITE hay equipment would have been painted red. I have come across Cockshutt hay equipment literature from the 1970's but not White. Cockshutt equipment was Oliver hay equipment painted red. If there is White hay literature it would be a rare find. The White hay line does not appear in the 1975 buyers guide.

I used the Oliver 1967 buyers guide for this article. Buyers guides are my favorite literature pieces to collect. A buyers guide is better than most books. It gives a complete history and pictorial review of a brands’s equipment offering in a given year. Oliver buyers guides a very good because often their implement brochures were single sheet flyers. The flyers were printed in black and white with green trim. The Oliver buyers guide uses big color photos. Expect to pay $30 and up for an Oliver buyers guide. The guides were published through the 1960's up to 1974, the last year the Oliver brand was produced. In a future issue of TTT I will feature Oliver buyers guides.

OLIVER 437 Mower Conditioner	OLIVER 351 sickle mower and 37 crimper
Oliver Hay Maker tedder
Oliver 105 Wheel Rake	Oliver Ground-Drive 207 rakes
Oliver 620 Baler
Oliver 520 baler	Oliver 14 bale thrower

TTT May 2004 Page 12

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