Hay making.

Hay making.

Posted on 5 Nov, 2008 3 comments

Making hay.

This goes back to our farm life. We had a farm in the S.W. of the country and besides growing fruit, we also had cattle. There were about 24 breeders, a bull of and on ( well, sometimes we hired one, then we bought one ) and once a year the cows would drop their calves. The calves stayed with their mother for 9-10 months and then got sold as baby beef. Sad to say, but that’s the way. It always took some sorting out, rounding them up ( with the horse or dogs ) and then seperating them in the yard. After some years we found that it was best not to upset them and just lure them with hay, which always worked, especially in the summer. You just put some bales on the back of the trailer and they just follow like sheep.
How did we get the hay?
We had a lot of land, divided in paddocks and some of them we just closed off to let the grass grow.
Winter time starts when the rains start, which is May. As soon as we had a few inches of rain the little green clover sprouts would test the air and come alive. The grass soon followed. Of course the cows would love that, but there was no feed in that new stuff yet. Just wind and water. So we keep on feeding hay all winter till the grass really takes off in spring, which is September. The cows don’t go into stables ( thank goodness, I could not imagine myself cleaning those! ). Hayfeeding is a pleasant job, you can see the cattle run towards the trailer, keen to get their feed. You can count them whilst they’re eating and check on the calves. So, in fact the grass is only green for 6 months, but there is plenty of grass in the last 3 months. The cattle keeps on grazing in the paddock, also the yellow and dry grass.
But those couple of paddocks we closed off are cut, just before they turn yellow, as most nutrients are in it when green.
This happens at the end of October, when and if the weather is favourable and has been favourable. We’ve had times when we had just cut the hay and it was lying in the paddock to dry when we got rain on top of it. Then you have to rake it to get the air through and dry it again. If you have fine weather you just rake it once in neat rows and then the bailer scoops it all up and makes nice bailes of it. Sometimes we’ve had 3 days storm, no rain, but tremendous winds, and when you rake, you saw the hay fly up in the air, no good either.
Once you’ve bailed you can leave them in the paddock until you are ready to pick them up. If it rains on the tightly bound bails, it is not so bad. An inch of rain is not too good, then you have to turn them over again to let them dry out. We’ve had it all, these are the frustrations of a farmer. Make hay whilst the sun shines really is a true story!
Anyway, these were the days haymaking was not an easy task. It was sweaty, dusty, sticky, you name it! Worst thing was stacking the hay in the hayshed. Especially when you get to the top near the ceiling. Hot, hot, hot. The amount of grass seeds I’ve had to pick out of socks from both hubby’s and son’s is huge. They don’t come out in the wash, in fact, you don’t want them in the wash, or else you’ll find grass seeds everywhere you don’t want them, including in your knickers, lol.
But haymaking was fun when the kids were young. They’d bring all sorts of things, blankets ( blankets?!? – nice for the seeds to get stuck in ), sheets, and build themselves little cubby houses. Later on they took the dogs on the leads and made them run and jump over the bails. That was fun too. And then they were jumps for the horses.



Later in our farmlife the round bails came. Much easier for storing and rolling out for feed. What was the best bit: someone else with his machine came and did all the work for us, hurray! No more grassy socks.
Not until all paddocks are eaten and as late as possible you start feeding hay.

More blog posts by Marguerite