Brothers, Larry and Bill Matlack began farming Alfalfa in the late 1980s and were looking for a more efficient way to handle large square bales. “It seemed like we would bale hay all night, while thinking about all the bales we would have to pick up the next day” Larry said. So, with the idea of a “trash truck’ type loader design, the brothers set out to build their first homemade stacker.

The first prototype was built on a schoolbus chassis with no cab or windshield. Every bale you picked up, the hay went straight down the collar of your neck. With interest from other hay growers in the region, the brothers looked to expand with a heavier chassis. With support from friends, family, and a local banker, their dreams took flight. They began bringing home fleets of used garbage trucks out of New York City and converting them to their second life in the hay fields of western Kansas.