Part of my Farm Newsletter sent on the .
Welcome back to the farm for 60 seconds this Sunday.
You forget what a process haymaking is, because before we can turn the grass into bales for simpler storage… we need to make sure the grass is dry – all the way through.
On mum’s old tedding machine, we’d just be flicking the grass from the bottom, to the top… but with the help of these huge new machines – we can also turn 3 rows into 1. Making the next job 3x quicker.
When you have quite a few acres to do, and not a reliable relationship with weather here in the UK – speed can make all the difference.
I’ve never actually asked mum what would happen if you asked the baler to just gobble up the cut grass directly – skip the tedding step – but I do know that there’s good stuff and bad stuff when it comes to haymaking.
It’s an experience you learn I’m sure… because I’ve been asked to “grab one of those nice bales” in the past, and have had no idea how to tell the what a nice bale is.
I’ve also heard mum on the phone paying a premium to buy “beautiful stuff”.
You might imagine all dried grass ends up quite similar (I did), but there are levels to this.
Getting it right is the difference between nutritious grass fed fodder for the winter and – as mum politely calls it – ‘rubbish’.
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I hope you’re having a lovely Sunday and if you’re feeling inspired – please share this moment with others.
If you have anything to add, then I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Lots of love from Ru + the farm.