Side hill Haying

[Egon]

Collection of videos that I'll add to later.

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[Egon]

Side slope haying

 

[Egon]

Side hill farming

 

[Egon]

Side hill haying

 

[Egon]

Side hill farming

 

[davesl708]

The had scythe brings back memories. My Grandfather taught me how to use one. We used them to knock down the bluestem in the unused pasture.
Worked great.

 

[cqaigy2]

The had scythe brings back memories. My Grandfather taught me how to use one. We used them to knock down the bluestem in the unused pasture.
Worked great.

I had similar reaction to seeing the scythe. My Father taught me to use one, you quickly learn a few key things. One is, sharp is your friend, and the others, are best learned by personal experience. :laughing:

 

[Egon]

Fellows, I got a scythe downstairs. Sharp to.

I've been able to watch Farmers Using scythes just outside of Zermatt.

 

[ultrarunner]

My grandfather always cut around the home with one... even had a sharpening stone in a hollowed out cow's horn...

Someone there is a super 8 of him teaching me the technique...

Now the farm is no longer a farm after many generations... my cousin is slowly selling it off and as we say in Oakland... "Living Large"

All winter he would make wood furniture, sharpen and repair tools in his basement...

I had some broken hand trowels and hand shovels... he repaired them and used scrap copper water pipe for the strengthening ferule...

His dairy farm didn't have any flat area... all the fields are sloped... some a lot and those were later mowed with walk behind mowers...

The last 3 "Landwirt" videos were filmed in Austria

Austrian Haymaking | ScytheConnection

 

[CDennyRun]

That's some pretty dang cool stuff. Thanks for sharing!

Chris

 

[Egon]

I'd been looking for haying in the alps for a while. Finally found some from Switzerland on YouTube. Then I just followed what looked interesting.

Most of us are unawares of the machinery in the videos as well as tractors with air ride suspension. It intrigued me.

 

[ultrarunner]

They really have it down to a science in the alpine dairy regions... some of those fields have been tended for hundreds of years by the same family... generation to generation.

Last summer I visited one of my exchange students... she is in a nursing program in Salzburg and was working 8 weeks at a hut high up in the alps... it was a vacation highlight and she was dressed in the traditional native dress and the cows were simply happy to be grazing above the treeline...

They had just finished mowing and the pictures show the slopes!

Bichlalm in Großarl | SalzburgerLand Magazin

 

[Egon]

The Alpine Farms and their setting have always attracted me.

 

[Ed of all trades]

I thought the farm I grew up on had some steep hills. Wow. Ed

 

[stuckmotor]

Ultrarunner,
It always amazes me that alpine people can make a living walking behind their haying equipment on the sides of mountains. Is farming their main source of income or do they make most of it from another source?

 

[ultrarunner]

It's harder for sure...

On the plus side, at least in Austria... the land has often been in the family for generations, property taxes are very low and there is a very strong movement to buy local.

My cousin makes goat cheese that won all kinds of prizes in competition... the local 5 star hotel will buy all she makes.

Just about everyone I know there buys the meat/produce locally and organic, pesticide free AG is huge...

They are willing to pay more to know the pork came from the pig farmer that raises all his own grain and hormone free...

Everyone has health insurance so that hurdle is not there... farmers, just like everyone that works have social security.

Small mountain farms do have outside sources of income... many have bed and breakfast or offer hikers/travelers food and drink...

By and large I find the population fit... an active lifestyle outdoors for for country folks...

Unlike here or at least my part of California... wood heat is very common and supplementing income by selling firewood is good business in alpine regions...

My friend has people he calls that will pay him for to salvage fallen trees on his property... in the SF Bay Area we have to pay to get rid of firewood!

 

[Farmer495]

My luck I'd fall down the hill several times and expend more energy climbing back up to where my equipment was than actually haying.

 

[Ed of all trades]

My luck I'd fall down the hill several times and expend more energy climbing back up to where my equipment was than actually haying.

I read a book about one of the first people to enter the Smoky Mountains as an outsider. In his book he told about a woman that fell out of the corn field and broke her arm. She just put it in a sling and went back to work in the corn field. Ed

 

[Ed of all trades]

My luck I'd fall down the hill several times and expend more energy climbing back up to where my equipment was than actually haying.

I read a book about one of the first people to enter the Smoky Mountains as an outsider. In his book he told about a woman that fell out of the corn field and broke her arm. She just put it in a sling and went back to work in the corn field. Ed

 

[stuckmotor]

Ultrarunner,
Thank you. I'd been wondering about that since I stumbled across some of those videos a while back.