Modern Crofting

The days of haymaking by hand are long gone - this picture, courtesy Dorothy Parker, was taken at Achateny Farm.

Today the whole job is mechanised. The field is cut and then, after a couple of days in which to dry, the crop is lifted and baled by one machine before....

....being transferred to another which encases the bale in plastic.

Another thing has changed. The crop is no longer hay but haylage, a cross between hay and silage, this the result of changing weather patterns so that the cut grass simply doesn't get the time to dry sufficiently to make hay.