Yes, indeed, that’s the reason. Though the cutting was done by machines I haven’t seen any machines raking, only humans. When the raking is finished after some days of drying comes the machine that presses, forms and wraps the hay bale in one operation.
In former times when the cutting was done by hand the cutter was secured by a rope I read.
This was one of the not so steep slopes btw.
That makes sense. As they say, “Make hay while the sun shines.” Farming methods differ widely for many reasons. These farmers must love their cows to rake hay by hand. As a boy I spent summers working in hay fields, and even with equipment it is hard, physical labor.
While searching for some English texts about alms and things I found this guy’s website … “Valleys and gentle slopes can be cut and collected by tractor, but real skill is required to run a walk behind cutter (schnitzer) on a 35 degree slope to harvest the tall grass that will be collected with the same wooden rakes used by grand parents. ” http://www.bobkiddphoto.com/blog/2012/8/matrei-in-osttirol
Martina, the links worked fine. While looking at the hill cutter video, I came across this video of a hill rake. Looks like a Swiss machine. Still looks like hard work, but better than raking by hand. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkJb84BGnbk
I guess one point is that the place where we have been is not that rich. All these machines are very expensive and I wonder if raking by hand is simply the most economical thing to do … especially if you already had to buy a mower.
Know all about economic reality. If they can’t afford the machine, they likely don’t need it. It is all a balancing act between benefit and time. Still a fascinatiing slice of life photo that could have been taken any time in the last several hundred year, if one had a camera back then.
This is just a beautiful photo and the comments so interesting as well.
Cutting and raking hay by hand? Didn’t think that happened any more. Perhaps the field is too steep for a tractor and equipment.
Yes, indeed, that’s the reason. Though the cutting was done by machines I haven’t seen any machines raking, only humans. When the raking is finished after some days of drying comes the machine that presses, forms and wraps the hay bale in one operation.
In former times when the cutting was done by hand the cutter was secured by a rope I read.
This was one of the not so steep slopes btw.
And – the cutting I saw wasn’t done by tractors or bigger machines but by men operating over-sized hand lawn mowers – kind of :-)
That makes sense. As they say, “Make hay while the sun shines.” Farming methods differ widely for many reasons. These farmers must love their cows to rake hay by hand. As a boy I spent summers working in hay fields, and even with equipment it is hard, physical labor.
I hope the link works – this is the kind of lawn mower I was talking about ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxlrfo_rSS8
While searching for some English texts about alms and things I found this guy’s website … “Valleys and gentle slopes can be cut and collected by tractor, but real skill is required to run a walk behind cutter (schnitzer) on a 35 degree slope to harvest the tall grass that will be collected with the same wooden rakes used by grand parents. ” http://www.bobkiddphoto.com/blog/2012/8/matrei-in-osttirol
Martina, the links worked fine. While looking at the hill cutter video, I came across this video of a hill rake. Looks like a Swiss machine. Still looks like hard work, but better than raking by hand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkJb84BGnbk
I guess one point is that the place where we have been is not that rich. All these machines are very expensive and I wonder if raking by hand is simply the most economical thing to do … especially if you already had to buy a mower.
Know all about economic reality. If they can’t afford the machine, they likely don’t need it. It is all a balancing act between benefit and time. Still a fascinatiing slice of life photo that could have been taken any time in the last several hundred year, if one had a camera back then.
This is just a beautiful photo and the comments so interesting as well.
Thank you! :-)
I really like these discussions that sometimes appear in the comments.
Passing an evening with researching stuff. Like hay raking.