Make hay while the sun shines

June is always a busy month for farmers, and Ivy Farm is no exception. Normally of course we would be busy with camping groups, and school visits, as well as making hay for the sheep and horses on the other fields. 2020 has seen no visitors, but our neighbouring farmer has been busy cutting the grass for hay.

For the first time in many years, the field where Camp Jojo would have been set up has been cut for hay – the long grass looked beautiful in the wind – but here Colin is taking advantage of the hot dry weather we had at the end of June to cut it.

The hay has to be turned several times before it is dry enough to bale, and here you can see the “twizzler” which does the job.

We were very anxious that rain was forecast, so here it was all hands on deck:

Two tractors were busy turning the hay in front of the baler. Luckily for us it was all finished on Sunday evening before the rain arrived! It’s hard to believe, but it only took about ten minutes to bale up the whole of Pond Meadow, our camping field, which some of you might remember as quite a big field!