We didn't use much baling wire though there was always enough around to make temporary fixes. Mostly, we used small "square" bales which were held together with twine. Twine was used in place of wire on temporary repairs with many of those repairs lasting years.
By the time the farm was sold, most of the milking stantions were held together with twine. More than once a truly temporary repair of the belt for the suction motor was made with twine. It would last maybe long enough to milk one cow before a new belt needed to be made. Breaking that belt at night sucked as it meant two milkings using twine. Grandpa never bought a spare belt as he believed it would rot by the time we needed it. Maybe 30 years earlier when he "modernized" from hand milking that was true but by the 70s that wasn't nearly as much of a problem.
same here on the twine, Dad put up red top cane in bundles (machine that cut and bundled) then we would stack in the field like teepees and haul in when needed or had time to stack behind the windbrake, my first memory of the stacking was Dad had a team of horses that pulled the hay wagon to the barn, some was put in the loft to feed the milk cows, we always had milk & crème for home use and butter to sell.
