Solid metal gears clanged and grated as a mechanical arm lifted into the air and came down on the hay fed into the contraption by hand with hay forks.

Dust and bits of hay stalk covered anyone and anything nearby.

Two volunteers kept busy hand-inserting and then tying the bailing wire. Without the nearby tractor supplying power via a long belt, the whole operation would simply come to a halt.

Denny Chase, of Otho, was watching the show from the seat of his 1953 Model 30 Cockshutt as it kept the belt turning.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen April Patten, of Ogden, kept busy Saturday at the West Central Region Cockshutt & Co-Op Club threshing bee in Homer hand inserting the wire into an antique baling machine - and as a bonus - got her hair full of straw. She also helped pitch hay into the machine.

He’s no stranger to the Cockshutt brand.

“We had one in 1948,” he said.

He’s been farming for 60 years. In that time, he was part of many a crew bailing hay. This time, though, there was no pressure to get it done.

“Now it’s just playing around,” he said. “We’ll let the young guys do that.”

Rhett Skeel, of Webster City, was one of the volunteers feeding hay into the bailer.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen Denny Chase, of Otho, sits on his 1953 Model 30 Cockshutt tractor Saturday as its being used to power an antique hay baling machine at the West Central Region Cockshutt & Co-Op Club threshing bee in Homer.

“It’s really not that hard, it’s not that hard at all,” he said. “It’s easy to keep up. Of course, that could be because it’s about 75 degrees today, it’s not 100.”

It might also be that, in the past, workers doing a chore such as baling hay might have paced themselves for their long days.

“We’re used to such a fast-paced world,” he said. “This is really a comfortable pace.”

Jane and Glenn Lee, of Woolstock, were enjoying the threshing bee under an umbrella as light rain fell. Cruising up and down the aisles of antique tractors, they stopped frequently as he pointed out a feature or detail on a machine.

“I just love this era, anything that goes back 20, 30, 40 or 50 years,” he said. “I live in a dream world. My wife is ready to divorce me.”

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen Jane and Glenn Lee, of Woolstock, look over some of the antique tractors on display Saturday at the West Central Region Cockshutt & Co-Op Club threshing bee in Homer.

While she assured him that the latter is certainly not the case, he looked into the past and shared a story from a day when much of the equipment around him was new and in daily use on thousands of farms.

“I went with my dad on a threshing run in 1946,” he said. “The gentleman that owned the place said come here — he had a little H John Deere — then he said, How’s about you drive to each bundle for me. Don’t touch the clutch lever though, I don’t want a burned out clutch.”

Lee spent the week on that old tractor, driving it from bundle to bundle. “I did all that work and at the end of the week he gave me $6.50,” Lee said. “In those times, that was a lot of money. He was a nice guy.”

Lee, who just turned 80, was 9 when he made that first payday farming.

Tom Manning, of Dallas Center, was among a group of tractor collectors at the threshing bee. They arrived in a caravan of home-built campers pulled by their favorite machine.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen A pair of restored Sheppard Diesel tractors shine Saturday afternoon at the West Central Region Cockshutt & Co-Op Club threshing bee in Homer. The machines fit in with this year's theme of "Orphan Tractors," which are machines from companies that have not survived.

It’s part of an informal annual event called Hoppy’s Ride.

Manning’s camper looked like a covered wagon. Others included a barn, moonshine still and a few that defy description.

“We’re a bunch of goofy kids,” Manning said.

He’s also a collector.

“I love anything old,” he said.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen Tom Manning, of Manning, looks over a homebuilt tractor on an old Rumley Oil-Pull chasis at the West Central Region Cockshutt & Co-Op Club threshing bee in Homer Saturday.

One of the tractors in his collection that was parked on the road in front of his camper, has a claim to fame. It’s the 1965 John Deere 40/60 that was used during the filming of “The Bridges of Madison County.”

“Both Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep sat on it,” he said.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen Liam Larson, 4, of Homer, finds a place to sit and enjoy the scenery under a tractor Saturday during the West Central Region Cockshutt & Co-Op Club threshing bee in Homer.