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Traditional sheaves of hay are cut down by a reaper binder. Sheaves are put in the pyramid shaped pile so they can 'cure', much like tobacco, for about one month. Only the outside of the pile weathers, the inside is quite green, and the stooks are waterproof.
Ahhh... these look to be shocks of wheat grain from the seed heads I can see. The stems seemed to me to be way too coarse to be hay. Seems like an awful lot of pillow cases and other assorted cloths have to be used. I know we had hundreds of shocks in our fields and it would cost a fortune to cover them in this manner - but that is what is so neat about viewing things from different countries :-) Zooming in on the photo - this wheat and not hay. Hay would have to be awfully bleached to be this color as well, and thus all the nutrition lost from it. That is why the stalks are baled and put up as straw - to be used for bedding as they contain nothing nutritional. Cattle and horses can still eat the straw - but it would be only a filler in their stomach.
Yes it is wheat, if you download the original photo you can see the heads. This was only a small paddock, maybe about 4 acres. I also love looking at different farming photos from around the world, it's a lot cheaper than travel eh?! Thank you for your comments, I enjoyed them.
Do you notice the rows where the wheat was planted by the grain drill? Inbetween them is the plants which were seeded at the same time as the wheat - which served as a Nurser crop - to allow the grasses or legumes, to get a good start and not be eaten by birds. Oats and wheat germinate much more rapidly than grasses and legumes do, and provide that needed protection till the young plants are well established. They won't be ready to havest til their second year.
Of all the jobs I did on farms, ploughing was probably my favourite and sowing to finish it off was good as well. I haven't heard the expression Nurser crop before, but it's a good name. We call it improved pasture that's sown at the same time as the grain crop.
Love this photo - brings back so many memories of our threshing times in hte states. Over here, we call these shocks instead of stooks. They consist of 7 bundles of oats per shock. They start out with two bundles placed slightly at an angle - like an upside cown V to each other - they brace each other up that way. Then the next two are put on one side of the original 2, and then the next two are placed on the other side of the original two. To finish it off, instead of the cloth, the 7th bundle is spread apart on both the cut stubble end as well as the top end which contains the grain - this is called the cap, which keeps birds from getting to the grain on those which make the shock up. The cap also helps protect the grain from rain and the weather elements.
Thank you for the info. These are not mine, I was driving past and loved the look of them in the paddock. I love the older farming ways (my time on the land was all with with modern equipment) - this is the second year I've seen these hay stooks in this paddock.
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Peter this looks so old fashioned, is all the hay is this style to this place, and not in bales?
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No I wouldn't imagine so Kelly, normally they just do a paddock or two for fun. I love the old ways of doing things (although I use all the labour saving gadgets I can) it's fascinating, and I was quite chuffed to see that paddock as I drove by.
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