Haytime

Haytime has arrived in our meadows - the first sections were mown earlier this week by scythe. We expect to continue mowing in sections until the end of August.

This staggered mowing schedule helps to spread the workload and is better for wildlife.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-nAl5EjgpU

Arguably, the most significant event in a meadow's seasonal calendar is the summer hay cut.

For a traditional meadow, mowing to provide fodder for livestock is the most important event and to secure the best nutritive quality mowing usually starts in June.

For grassland managed more for its flowering and wildlife interest then of course flowering and seeding are more important and mowing does not normally start until July and may continue into August.

Yellow rattle if present is a good guide as to when to start cutting. The seed pods of Yellow rattle have evolved to ripen and rattle out their seeds at haytime (hence its other popular name ‘hay rattle'): in traditionally managed old meadows, this usually occurs in July.

Posted on 05 July 2011,
Category: Advice