Ann Arbor Baler - Shelbyville, IL
Posted by: 
adgorn
N 39° 24.394 W 088° 47.430
16S E 345843 N 4363425
A monument to the development of an improvement in agricultural technology done in the town of Shelbyville, IL.
Waymark Code: WMC55P
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 07/26/2011
Views: 2
Inscription:
"Designated an Historic Landmark of Agricultural Engineering
In the Shelbyville area during the Spring of 1929, Raymore McDonald designed and developed the first commercial pick-up baler as conceived and financed by Horace Tallman and his sons, Leslie R. And Gentry L. These balers were marketed for many years by the Ann Arbor Machine Company of Shelbyville. This concept of field processing of farm forages made a significant contribution to the efficiency and economy of mechanized forage harvesting in the world's agriculture. This basic field pick-up mechanism has been used in about 1.5 million balers built in the U.S. by 1980.
Dedicated by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, May, 1980"
The Lake Shelbyville brochure at (
visit link)
features an article on Horace Tallman and a picture of the baler.
From the IAgrE website at (
visit link)
1932 - First pickup baler manufactured.
The Ann Arbor Machine Company of Shelbyville, Illinois, manufactures the first pickup baler, based on a 1929 design by Raymond McDonald. Six years later Edwin Nolt develops and markets a self-tying pickup baler. The baler, attached to a tractor, picks up cut hay in the field, shapes it into a 16-18-inch bale, and knots the twine that hold the bale secure. Self-propelled hay balers soon follow.