Making Hay While the Sun Shines

The rain we had been waiting for all week finally arrived this evening. We got about 20 to 25 mm over a couple of hours. When the pups and I went for our walk about 8:00 pm the world was fresh and green (and wet and muddy). The villagers who had been sweating to get their dry hay raked and piled and hauled home were rewarded.

Hayfield June 2nd, Raking and Stacking June 7th

In previous blogs I mentioned that hay was cut with a scythe. Part of the field across from us was cut with a gas powered weed eater. Not sure it was faster or easier then the scythe but it was mechanized. The field was too big to haul home in a sack or on a little pull cart, so when it was dry they piled it into three haycocks. Fans of Ernest and Little Boy Blue , you now know where the word came from and what it looks like. On Friday afternoon two men on a small tractor pulling a small hayrack showed up and started frantically hauling as it looked like rain. It took them three or four trips.

Haycocks and Hayrack June 13

I'd hazard a guess there was enough hay there to feed one cow for the winter. Mostly what we would call coarse slough hay or pepper grass but cut at the right stage and with a fair bit of fine grass like our red-top slough hay, it is likely not bad feed for a dry pregnant cow.