Before farmers had their large, brightly-painted John Deere tractors, old-fashioned equipment was the rage for agriculture.

In Connoquenessing Township, that same type of equipment was recently on display.

A 100-year-old hay baler cut oats for the thrashing demonstrations of the Butler Farm Show. The machine has a design of 100-years-old, but the whole machine itself is 60 to 70 years old.

The hay baler has a cylinder frame with six blades to cut the oats. Then, the oats slide onto a canvas, which brings the grain inside the machine. A knot is then tied around for a perfect bale. The baler’s technical name is a “reaper.”

Reapers were invented in Charles Withington. However, in 1874, Cyrus McCormick commercialized the machines.

Now, brothers Harold and Boof Foretch operated the old-fashioned machine at Guy and Carol Daubenspeck’s farm.

According to Jim Lokhaiser, a farm show officer, the oats will go back to the farm show grounds for drying out.

“Then we use it during the week of the show to put on thrashing demonstrations,” Lokhaiser said. “You have to appreciate the old-fashion thrashing machines, with big, long belts. It goes back a long way.”

Connoquenessing Township farmer Randy Kummer said that the only difference between the farming demonstration put on recently and from years ago was that the machine wasn’t being pulled by horses.

“They’re doing it the ‘old-fashion’ way, which is unique,” Kummer said. “Before you used the machine to cut the oats, everyone had to go through the field with a cradle. You had to cut it up by hand, pick it up by hand. This was a big game-changer in processing grain.”

Kummer explained that the machine cuts down the oats, bringing it onto two separate canvases. Then, the canvas sends it inside the machine, where the bundles are made by a knotter, trying string to bring the oats together.

On his farm, Guy Daubenspeck said he has an alfalfa field in addition to his oats field. Past the hay, there are cornfields, with some sweet corn. Daubenspeck also said that he has 70 cattle.