[caz]

I read an article in the paper a while back asking farmers to sign up/get grants to cut some of their hay how it used to be done, i think for enviromental reasons and so that people dont forget altogether old traditional ways. How is it done? I have visions in my head of using a sithe(spelling), and then making hay stacks and going round collecting it with a horse and cart. Last year i found an abandoned family of field mice in my field after it was cut and i felt so guilty as the parents might have stuck around had it not been for the huge tractors in and out  the field. Anyway the babies were clearly abandoned as they were cold and flys had laid there eggs all over them so i took them to a wild life sanctuary and the man was confident they would pull through ok.
So after this year i am tempted  to set aside a small part of my field to make hay the traditional way, mainly as i dont have any machinery and also because i think it would not disturb the wildlife as much. Would be nice to get the horses to work for their keep as well.
Any ideas on how its done? And what equipment i need?

[Susie]

Hi,
Have used a scythe before - used to be a volunteer for the Wildlife Trust and everything was done by hand on the reserve we worked on - but was never around for the drying/stacking stage so don't know how hard that is. The scythe was much easier to use than it looked once you got the hang of it and we were working in a group of volunteers so the good atmosphere helped loads. Plus, as we were volunteers there was no real pressure on us to complete all the work within a set time frame. Think its something you would need to enlist friends to help with or it would take a very long time. You could try your local Wildlife Trust to see if they have any weekend courses if you wanted to try it before tackling your land?

Try looking at http://www.downsizer.net/Projects/A_sustainable_world/Hay_Making_by_Hand/ for a step by step guide with photos.

Getting the  to help sounds great but being a bit scared of them can't help at all with that one!

[caz]

thank you for your help, maybe will do an acre to start with and see how it goes!

[egglady]

now this has really got me thinking....... we used LOADS of hay and haylage through the winter and as our animal stock increases, so will our need for hay. We have 2 x 2 acre fields and access to another 4 acre field, so i am sure we could grow our own - only dont have the money to buy everything we'd need to harvest our own.  I wonder if anyone else in the Fife area would be interested in setting up some kind of co-operative where we share ourselves and our machinery and skills to get in our own hay?

PM me if you are interestered

[plumseverywhere]

Hi Caz
we cut the really long grass with a petrol hedge trimmer (so not very old fashioned!!) but then we gather and dry on tripods, dry for days and collect (in a wheelbarrow using a rake as pitchfork) my children drag their sledges around collecting too.
did try a scythe but far too scary for me as i had visions of hurting myself or someone else.
certainly beats buying bags of the stuff for the animals though so i don't mind the extra work and its satisfying knowing its your own hay going to the rabbits/goats etc

[Wizard]

I can enlighten you on ways I've seen it done when I was a boy (1940's) For a start 2 horses pulled a 4ft 6 inch finger bar mower wheel drive This left a trail and because of the swath board the grass was only a yard wide this left a yard gap between 2 rows.As it lay in the sun drying A turner was brought into the field and the rows turned into the yard wide space.If it were a good May/June it would only need turning once if it rained it was turned again.Usually a Moffery or 4 wheel wagon was brought and the horse and wagon driven between 2 rows The hay was forked up into as much as would stay on the fork and lifted onto the wagon (This is where the name pitch fork comes from) where a man would stack it nicely so as much hay as possible could be sent to the yard The hay being loose was usually roped on so none fell off.At the yard  it was pulled up to the elevator hopper the rope removed and a man would climb back on the top of the hay and unload it a fork full at a time into the hopper where the elevator would lift it up to the men usually 3 one stacking one passing hay to him and the man moving the hay from where it dropped to him.When all the hay was gathered the stack(s) were thatched with wheat straw to keep them dry.Come winter some of the thatch was removed and a cake of hay was cut with a cut knife This cake could be up to 5 foot square and 3 foot thick It was an art to cut a cake of fodder get your fork stick it in the cake and keeping hold of the shaft slide down the stack with the cake on the fork Usually the Gathman did this job and take it on his shoulder into the cattle in the crewyards.All bloody hard work.Nothing glamorous about it at all.Now some fields had places the horses and mower could not get these were cut with a chap or chaps using scythes which were sharpened often with a thing called a rub stone it was made from Carborundum and tapered from the center to the ends each side the middle was maybe about a 11/2" thick. The story to boys was "If yer ent got one like a 4 penny rub stone yer no good to any lass" These garrings were treated the same way as the field and usually picked and turned with a fork.Now later tractors pulled the mower and the carts/wagons and later still a Vicon Acrobat would turn 2 rows onto the middle row and a thing called a baler would come and bale the 3 rows in one pass.In the 1960's company's Like New Holland developed a thing called a crimper which broke the blades of grass every 11/2" and the juice leaked out the fracture allowing the grass to dry quickly I have seen Grass cut around 11 am and turned at 3 in the afternoon and baled at 6 in the evening when the weather was right.Nowadays much is cut by drum mowers 10 or more feet wide and baled into 1 ton bales handled by teleporters with just 1 man.Not to mention silage and hayledge today

[caz]

its a good job i enjoy hard work on hot sunny days !