Grey County Farming - The Hay Harvest

Farmland is a huge part of the landscape around here, and the changing pattern of crop seeding, growth, and harvest are one of the most obvious signs of the passing seasons every year.  I never tire of driving the country roads and noting what crops are being grown where, watching them mature, and then watching the harvest.

At the moment it's the hay harvest well underway, with farmers taking advantage of any warm dry days-in-a-row when they can mow the hay and let it dry.  Dairy farmers are usually first, as they want hay with a high protein content, while for beef cattle that's not quite so important - and Grey County here is the leading beef producer in Ontario.  So there will be a lot of hay cut later on in the summer too.

The big round hay bales scattered over rolling fields always seem to make great pictures to me, but you tend to forget how much work it is.  Admittedly, not nearly the physical labour of those old square bales, all tossed into the hay wagon and unloaded in the barn by hand, but still a lot of time mowing, raking, baling, then gathering the bales and taking them off to the barn, or wrapping them in white plastic - giant marshmallows lying along the fencerows.

I just threw this slightly different shot in just because I love the snaky motion of the fence along the edge of the field!  I'm linking this to 'Our World Tuesday'.