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Jenny waiting in the shade for her turn at the tedder
Top: Small square baler broke down as usual.
Michele takes it all to good humour.
We do around 40 hectares of pesticide-free meadow hay each year.
The year 2006 marked the first year of turning and wind rowing the hay with horses.
Haying is done in June -July.
Process consists of cutting the grass, turning it 1or 2 times to make sure it is all dry and you don't get wet grass underneath. When the grass is well dry but still green , all the hay is put into rows called a wind row. Then the hay is baled, in our case with a small square baler, it picks the hay up at the front compresses it , then puts 2 twines around the bale, knots and finally the bale comes out the back.
The bales are then gathered into groups, lent against each other, with the knots on the inside and to the bottom. In this way, if it rains, it runs of the top of the bales.
As soon as possible the bales are brought off the field with one main team or two teams of 4-5 people per team. Ecoferme members with help of volunteers, work hard for 2-4 weeks solid to get the bales stacked and covered for the winter.
After all the harvest is under cover all helping partys come back, a week or so later for the 'fete de foin' with home grown beef or pig roast, to thank everyone for there hard work.
