Usksider Photographic

I’m often surprised just how quickly times change… how rapidly ‘the old ways’ are forgotten. When I was a small child I remember the local farmer cutting his hay meadows and leaving the leaving the cut grass to dry in the sun. The cut hay would be turned periodically to ensure both sides dried evenly before being gathered and stacked in a tradition haystack for future use.

Sometimes in the early 1960s (I can’t recall exactly when) the farmer bought himself a bailer and then once the hay had dried it was gathered and bailed automatically. Stacks of hay bails were made and the day of the haystack had gone.

Hay Rolls

Nowadays farmers don’t seem to bail hay at all, they roll it… so things have changed yet again. The traditional haystack was with us for hundreds (thousands) of years, the stacks of bailed hay were with us for perhaps forty or fifty years… I wonder how long the large rolls of hay will be around and what is likely to replace them?

When these disappear, what'll happen to having a Roll in the Hay?

Also, given the way things are going… will we ever be able to enjoy a roll in the hay again?