Making Hay While The Sun Shines

The summer is nearing an end and preparations for winter are in full swing.  Everyone is either mowing their fields or baling hay one last time.

Even the fields around the small local airports are mowed and baled.  The large buildings in the background are hangers.  

This gentleman was mowing right beside the highway so I slowed my car, waved, pointed to my camera and yelled to ask if I could take his picture.

He smiled, stopped his tractor and let me focus.  He probably thought I was a city-slicker who had never seen a tractor.

Another day I passed this gentleman who was raking his field.  When asked if I could take his picture, he laughed and said only if I would drive the tractor around the field a few times for him so he could rest.  It was a temptation.  The last time I drove a tractor was as a small child while sitting on Daddy Fred, my grandfather's lap.  He worked the clutch, gears, and brakes while I steered.  Reluctantly I declined. Climbing back down without breaking my neck would be a challenge. Experts are able to make something difficult look simple and everything about farming is complex.

Hay is used as winter fodder (food) for animals and the varieties of mixtures of grasses and legumes are unlimited.  Every animal has its own preferred mixture.  It is tricky to harvest hay at the right time. It is best right before the seed head ripens, the leaves are full and the weather is dry.  It is the leaves and seeds that make for good quality hay.  After it is mowed, it is allowed to dry in the field.  If the grass gets too wet and spoils, it can rot, mold or develop toxins which will make the animals sick.  If it is too dry, the leaves will be stunted and have less nutrition.  Straw is used mainly as bedding since it is the leftover stems which are lower in nutritional value. 

This field was mowed earlier, the grass was dry and was being raked with 8 wheels of a 10 wheel rake.  The gentleman said the reason he was using 8 rakes instead of all 10 was that it had rained so much the grass was thick.  The rake wheels would spin as the tractor moved.

The hay baler followed behind the long row of raked hay, rolling it into a circle then tying it. 

There are different types and sizes of hay balers (square or round) because each type has different uses.  This made large round bales which would be used to feed livestock.  One bale weighs about 900 pounds.

It was a complicated, noisy, dangerous machine but it beats raking and baling by hand.

The idiom "make hay while the sun shines" means to do something while the opportunity is available.  These men had a few days of good weather so they were definitely "making hay while the sun was shining."