I was pretty good with a hay hook, using either hand. Rarely did we bale onto the ground, mostly onto hay racks. Of course the barn was never more than a couple of miles away. Here in NW il we just baled up garter and bull snakes. Harmless. I would have hated to have watch out for poisonous ones (shudder).
As the day goes on, you get tired and the stack gets higher.
I was just there for a little while helping out but a fulltime hand assured me the chances of getting a hook through the hand from the guy on the wagon, as happened earlier, was pretty slim ...
Yeah, these prairie rattlers were just little guys like adders or vipers but imagine a bite would get your attention. Brrrr
We had the round bales. I used a hay hook until I worked with an old fellow (mid to late 60s) who used a three tined short handled pitch fork to sling them up on the wagon. Their’s were not quite a dense as ours, but I learned to do that & found it much more efficient. Don’t remember any bailed snakes in SE Nebraska, but most off the time the bails had been laying in the field for a week or so.