22 August 2007
Hay Cut Day
Posted by Richard under: Hay; Smallholding .
All being well, the hay cut should happen today. We checked last night and Hedley the farmer has said that he should be here at 10:30 this morning. Kate has removed the gates to allow access and cleared a huge pile of cut thistles out of one gateway.
I am beginning to learn that there is an art to hay-making. Apparently, as the hay cut is very late this year (due to the weather) this has caused the underlying grass to become matted and tangled - this causes an issue.
If the grass is untangled, then once cut, the farmer can usually get away with ‘hay-bobbing’ (which I understand is case of churning up the drying hay with a hay-bob machine) to aid the drying process. However, as ours and everyone elses grass is fairly matted a standard hay-bob won’t cut the mustard…and it will probably require two ‘half-turns’. This can draw out the hay-making from 4 days to around 6 or 7 days to ensure that the hay is properly dry.
I am reliably informed, “once you’ve hay-bobbed you can’t turn it”…I am not sure whether this is a technical limitation or just a hay-making faux-pas.
Updates and photos to follow.