Our story begins in a little community east of Bend, appropriately named Alfalfa.

Working his central Oregon alfalfa farm, Henry Lewis knew there had to be a better way to move hay than a pair of hay hooks and an elevator. So in 1977, Henry set out to develop a bale handling system that would complement the automatic bale wagon.

OverIn the succeeding months, Henry's Bale Handler made the job of moving bales from the bale wagon stack to the truck an easy one man operation. One major improvement was the rotating turret that allowed him to retrieve bales from the end of the stack or from the side of the stack and then place the bales crosswise onto the truck bed.

A neighbor saw the machine working and had to have one. Then, a local tractor dealer saw one; then a wholesale distributor. Soon, Henry founded Lewco Mfg., Inc. to build "The Bale Handler" and keep up with the growing demand.

Over the next twenty-seven years, Henry made many improvements, increasing the durability and longevity of The Bale Handler. His original 8 bale design was just the first of fifteen models including fixed, rotating, high lift and big bale configurations. The dealer network continued to expand accross the United States and into Canada.

In 2007, when Henry was ready to retire, he sold his product line to fellow Oregonian David Steffen. Since then, The Bale Handler products have been built in the Willamette Valley as a division of Steffen Systems.