Fodder press

This fodder press was designed to produce bales of hay. Technically speaking, it marks the beginnings of the mechanization of certain agricultural tasks, the transitional stage between completely manual haymaking, when the hay was stored loose in lofts or in stacks, to a time when bales of hay are made directly in the fields using a tractor-drawn baler. The press could be mobile. It required two men to work the machine’s two side levers to raise a platform inside it and compress the hay against the inner sides. The side doors were then opened to bind the bales manually with wire or baling twine. In the end, this work was still very manual and demanded significant quantities, human energy and time. Nonetheless, the machine shows a step forward in streamlining farming tasks.

Originally from Saône-et-Loire, the farming equipment manufacturer Plissonnier set up shop in Lyon around 1847 and enjoyed strong growth thanks to Simon Plissonnier (1847-1931), a major figure in the farming community and MP for Isère. The firm produced a wide range of equipment, contributed to the development of mechanization and participated in numerous agricultural competitions in Paris and the rest of France. At the 1897 contest in Valence, Plissonnier won a silver medal for its fodder press, inspired by an English model by Waite Burnell that appeared in France around 1877.