Hay under the Hedge

Cae Mari Jones set up ready for a Scythe Course

This morning Phil was doing more mowing in preparation for the Introductory Scythe Course we are running tomorrow.

The field is now ready for the course participants to mow together during the morning session. He has mown a series of windrows of increasing length (see picture), creating a staggered start. Everyone can begin mowing at the same time without being dangerously close to each other, and will start with a mown area to their left, so that the windrow of cut grass they create will to fall onto an area that has already been cut.

This evening we carted the remainder of the hay on the Top Field that was cut on Friday and most of the hay that was cut on Saturday.

Inevitably the hay cut on any one day does not dry evenly. The grass nearer the hedge is lusher and thicker as well as being shaded for at least part of the day, so is slower to dry. We try as much as possible to gradually move hay away from the hedge as we are rowing and spreading. We have on occasions, if we need the hay to dry quickly, carried hay out from under the hedge and spread it onto a sunny part of the field from which hay has already be carted, although we avoid the extra work unless necessary.

A few hours after mowing, the windrows are being “flipped” to expose the green underside.

The Rhythm of the Hay Making Day

Opening up Cae Mari Jones ready for further mowing

It has been an amazing period of settled hay weather and it looks set to continue for a while yet. The days have developed a definite rhythm. Phil mows early in the morning. After breakfast one or both of us, depending on our commitments for the day, go out and spread the various ages of hay on the field. This can take up to 2 hours. Then there is a break from hay making (more then filled by work on and off the smallholding!) until the evening, when from about 7.30pm onwards we cart the hay that is ready and row up the rest. We are currently finishing between 9pm and 10pm, depending on the volume on the field.

This morning, Phil mowed a strip along the back of the other hay meadow, Cae Mari Jones, opening up the field in preparation for an Introductory Scythe Course we are running on Wednesday, and the Social Mow and Hand Hay Making Day on Sunday. The grass mown on the rougher edges of the fields usually contains a fair amount of bracken, hogweed and other coarser plants. Rather then making it into hay we tend to use it for mulch in the garden, where it does a useful job suppressing weeds, retaining moisture and adding fertility, .

We have cut most of the lushest part of the Top Field now. We will do a bit more mowing along the edges of it to control bracken and bramble invasion. The hay aftermaths and the rest of the field, which is much more dominated by Yellow Rattle and broad leaved plants such as Cat’s Ear and Hawkbits, will be grazed by cattle in mid to late August, followed by winter grazing by our sheep.

Example of the remaining vegetation in the Top Field. We have cut the grassiest part.

The Tools of the Hand Hay Making Trade

Members of the Dyfed Smallholders Association identifying flowers in the uncut grass.

It has been another gloriously hot day. Philip mowed for about 3 hours early this morning. After breakfast we spread all the hay on the field, then hosted a very enjoyable visit from the Dyfed Smallholders Association. This evening we carted the hay that had been mown on Thursday, then rowed up the rest of the hay for the night.

Hand hay making all begins with a scythe of course, but there are a couple of other important “tools of the trade” as shown in the pictures below.

We use pitchforks for spreading hay from rows, turning, lifting or moving hay about eg up onto haystacks. We use wooden hay rakes for rowing up, gathering spread hay into piles and for “rolling” rows, when we do not want to spread the hay but do want to turn the rows to expose the greener underside.

We also use hay racks to cure hay in less then ideal weather conditions. With the weather holding fair so far there has been no need to use them. I hope to post some pictures on their construction and use soon.

Unusual 3-pronged pitchfork we found on a recent trip to Cornwall.

Pushing a pitchfork along under a row to gather it into piles ready for carting

Piles of hay ready for stuffing into the dumpy sack

Wooden hayrake made for us by a local coppice worker

Rowing up with a hayrake

Stacking the Hay

After 9 dumpy sack loads (we stuff them well!), the “Stackpole” hay is safely stacked in the barn. As the hay is removed from the field, the quality of the scythe cut beneath is revealed. Despite being complete beginners, the Stackpole team have done very well, and achieved a pretty neat finish.

One of the hay stacks in the barn.

Rowing up

Some of the “Stackpole” hay in it’s rows early this morning (July 13th)

A very busy day for us yesterday, though not all with hay making. Phil squeezed in some mowing early on before going out to work in a neighbours garden, and I went off early to take produce from the garden to a local market.

Being squeezed for time when he got back, Phil concentrated on spreading the new mown grass, and actually ended up leaving the “Stackpole” hay in it’s rows all day. This hay is nearly cured and it probably won’t have done it any harm to not have been spread. The surface area exposed to the hot sun was reduced, helping prevent bleaching of the hay and there was a gentle breeze blowing most of the day, which will have helped the hay to carry on curing slowly in the rows.

We rowed up all the spread hay at about 9pm. We also “rolled” over the rows of “Stackpole” hay. This will expose the greener underside and let it start drying in the morning. It also means the driest hay is tucked under the row and protected from the dew fall.

Among other distractions yesterday, we had bee swarm move into a Warrè bait hive on top of the barn.

A swarm arriving into a Warré bait hive late afternoon of 12th July

Hauling Hay

Broad leaved plants in the hay

Phil mowed for an hour early this morning. I then spent almost two hours spreading all the hay that has been cut so far. We have just (4.30pm) bought in the hay that was cut on Monday. There is a lot of Cat’s Ear (Hypochaeris radicata) and other broad leaved plants in part of this section of hay. The broad leaved plants seem to be slower to dry then the grass. However, the plants in this section have if anything slightly over dried, and crumble if roughly handled. Making hay by hand allows you to be gentler then when using a machine, meaning we can minimise losses from “leaf shatter”.

We are bringing in the hay by loading it into dumpy sacks and dragging it along. Simple but effective, and luckily the barn is not too far away. We are in the process of making a bicycle wheeled handcart, and it will be interesting to see how it compares. It should be easier to pull (although the dumpy sacks slide easily) and hopefully easier to load.

Later this evening, we will bring in the hay cut on Tuesday and row up this mornings mowing and the “Stackpole” hay.

Carting hay to the barn (in the background) using a dumpy sack

Mowing with Stackpole wardens and more haymaking!

Rowing up in the evening. The greener rows cut by the Stackpole team can be seen towards the back.

Yesterday 7 volunteers and wardens from the Stackpole Estate, a National Trust property in Pembrokeshire, came on a course to learn how to use the scythes that they have bought for use on the estate.

After the boxes of scythes had been unpacked and set up, we went off to the field to mow. They picked up the techniques quickly, and soon the sound of seven scythes swishing through the grass could be heard. It was hot work – we would not normally cut so late in the morning as it is uncomfortable in the heat, and harder work too. During the heat of the day the grass is dry and hard and the scythe blade blunts quicker. Frequent honing (sharpening) of the blade is necessary to keep mowing easily. In all the group spent about two hours practising mowing, with a stop for lunch in the middle. In that time a substantial area of grass was cut, to the obvious satisfaction of the participants.

While the course participants retired to the relative cool of the barn to learn about the art of peening, I returned to the field to spread the windrows of freshly mown grass. Usually we avoid working in the field in the heat of the afternoon, but sometimes needs must!

The whole family returned to the field after supper to row up all the hay on the field. It was enjoyable working in the cool of the evening and the children enjoyed running through the rows as they were created. Nothing was quite ready to be carted yet.

The picture below is of Phil mowing at 7am this morning. Mowing conditions are much more favourable while the dew is still on the grass and it is cooler too. He is extending out to the right of his swing in this picture, to enable him to mow a wide swath.

Phil mowing at 7am this morning.

Progressive Hand Hay Making

Grass mown this morning, spread out to dry

It has been another good hay making day. This morning Phil mowed two long windrows up the edge of the hay field, opening up a patch ready to be mown on a course that we are running tomorrow. As the day warmed up, I spread the remainder of the hay that was cut on Friday and the hay that was cut yesterday, spreading it in such a way as to move it out from under the shadow of the hedge as much as possible. Phil spread the freshly mown grass and also did a little more turning and spreading of the thicker patches of hay later in the morning. It was then left until this evening, by which time the remainder of the Friday hay was ready to cart to the barn. The rest was rowed up ready for spreading / turning in the morning.

We practice what I believe is called progressive hay making. As you can see from today’s activity, at any one time during a period of hay making we will have hay down at various stages of drying. We make hay (relatively) little and often, whenever there is a suitable weather window. With the use of racks to protect in-completely cured hay during wet patches, the weather window can be quite short – as little as two days to get the grass to a point where it can be put on racks to finish curing.

The advantage of hay making in this way is that the work is manageable by hand with just a couple of people, and does not completely overwhelm all the other work that needs to be done in our busy lives. Also, if the weather turns unexpectedly, only a relatively small amount of the crop is spoiled or lost. Yet over a season, significant amounts of hay can be made. It probably has environmental advantages too – there is always a variety of lengths of grass present on the farm, with a wide range of habitats for the creatures that live there.

During a period of hay making, a typical days work is as follows:

• Mow an area of grass
• Spread hay from previous day(s)mowings
• Spread newly mown grass
• In the evening, cart any cured hay to the barn and/or make racks as necessary
• Row up any hay remaining on the field, ready to be spread the following day

Depending on the grass conditions and the forecast we may turn hay more frequently or make racks earlier in the day. During these posts over the summer I am planning to go into more detail as to how we carry out these processes, and why we make hay in the way that we do.



Rowing up in the evening

The Hay Making Season Begins!

The first few windrows in the early morning sun.

With the sun out and shining, and promising to stay so for the rest of the week, the 2013 hay making season at the Trust has got underway.
Awkwardly, we already had plans to be away over last weekend, meaning we could not start as early in the weather window as we would have liked. Philip did, however, cut a quarter of an acre into the Top Field on Friday morning as an experiment in “Lazy” hay making. The hay was spread Friday lunchtime once the morning moisture had dried off the ground, then left untouched until today (Monday) when we returned.

Hay is usually turned several times during drying, to speed up the process and ensure that drying is even throughout the crop. As expected, the hay we left lying un-turned all weekend was bone dry on the top, but still rather green on the underside, especially next to the hedge where the grass is lusher. This morning we rowed the hay up and re-spread it, mixing it up in the process and bringing the greener parts to the surface to dry.

By this evening, the hay furthest out from the hedge was ready to bring into the barn. The hay is full of Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor) at this point in the field. True to it’s name, the dried seed heads of the Yellow Rattle made a loud, dry rattling sound as the hay was handled. The crop nearer the hedge is heavier and gets shaded by the hedge for part of the day, so will need more drying time tomorrow.

Phil mowed a few more windrows early this morning, and will mow more again tomorrow. We will be handling this hay by our more usual methods – look out for further reports here throughout the week.

The hay on Monday morning – dry on top and…..

……still a bit wet underneath.

Scalloped pattern created by the scythe along the edge of the mown patch.

Introductory Scythe Course, June 23rd

Learning to sharpen the scythe on the Introductory Scythe Course, May 2012

We still have a couple of places left on our Introductory Scythe Course on June 23rd. An Introductory course is a great place to start using a scythe, or as a refresher if you have had one for a while. On the course we cover scythe set up, mowing, sharpening and peening with plenty of chance to have a go. We believe people learn best by doing!

We have scythes for sale at the end of each course and we strongly recommend that you attend an Introductory course before you buy your first scythe.

It gives you a chance have a go first and see what set up suits you best. Having seen a peening jig and an anvil in action and had a go yourself, you will be in a better position to decide which one will suit your needs. We will be able to advise you on which blade is best for your situation and all course participants have the chance to buy a Ready to Mow blade, that has been expertly prepared and edge-peened by Philip Batten, at no extra cost.

For more information and booking, see our courses page