… ready – steady – go – it’s haymaking time!!

When the dandelions have finished blooming, farmers get a special tingling in their legs, weather reports are watched more intensely, and people look to the old signs that nature gives us. When does the mowing start? My Dad (Papa) had a very special knack for it for a long time, he looked at his South Tyrolean barometer and often went out to mow even in the rain, knowing that it would be beautiful now!! Then he often said, “if Jakob mows, then we’ll go too.” :-)

It would be time to mow now, and the meadows are ripe for harvest. But the weather often throws a wrench in the works, and in recent years, it’s become increasingly difficult to bring in the silage or hay “dry” without rain showers. Even all the technology can’t take away the decision of whether it will actually “hold up or not.” When the weather finally cooperates, like on June 7th – you can hear the mowers running early in the morning, the tractors driving on the roads, and you know there’s a lot to do in the next few hours. I love the smell of freshly mown grass, don’t you?

In spring, all the tractors, machines, cranes are serviced, checked, the blades replaced, sharpened, and cleaned. The scythes are “peened.” So that when the weather is right, you can react quickly. For those farm story readers who have never been part of a hay harvest, I would like to write about how it works for us when we mow.

If the weather is good, we first have to “mow out” with the mower and scythe; although we have many flat meadows, there are many ditches in between. It is important that the water ditches are always mown and cleared of hay, otherwise everything will overgrow. Once that’s mown out, my husband drives the tractor and mows the meadows with the mower. In Gastein, we usually mow three times in summer; the first time is called “Vorgras” (early grass), and we usually put this first cut into silage. Once everything is mown, we rush to the field and rake the field edges by hand and clear the ditches of hay. Then Grandpa Hias, or in summer our intern Thomas Scheiblbrandner, comes and turns the grass with the rotary tedder so it can dry.

For silage, you need a sunny day; for hay, at least two. When we mow a steep section—in Gastein we call it a Leitn—we turn some parts by hand that the machines can’t reach, so they can dry.

The scent when the grass lies on the ground is simply fantastic. If you’re in the field for a while, you take a water bottle with you. Back home, the youngest child was always the water carrier and the older ones did the haying. On mountain farms, despite special machines, much still has to be mowed and hayed by hand, turned over—this deserves great appreciation and respect! It’s admirable and wonderful that so much is still mowed in our valley and that families help each other, especially when there’s a lot of hand haying to do. When the weather presses, you have to step it up and hay faster. Once the sun has dried the grass or hay as desired, the grass is gathered into “Riedeln” so the tractor with the loading wagon or silage baler can pick it up. For the grass to become hay, it must be turned several times; it needs at least 2 sunny days. Some farms now have ventilation systems, so the hay can be harvested even when it’s not completely dry yet and then ventilated in the barn. With the changeable weather, this is certainly the best investment.

In any case, the hay harvest is always beautiful, and there is no greater joy for any farmer than when everything could be made into dry hay and nothing got rained on. If it rains in between, all the work has to be done again, and additionally, the fodder loses value. If you’re unlucky, the grass lies for days and is then referred to by farmers as “Fuchs” (fox)… So, let’s hope the weather gets better against the forecasts and we farmers can start the hay harvest again. Happy Father’s Day to all of you! Katharina