Photo-a-Day  (Sunday, 20th June, 2021)

Great to watch these machines wrapping the bales

Lovely photo Anne, like Mick says it's good to watch this happpening, a sure sign that summer's here. Like the Fatsia plant in the foreground.

What happens to the plastic after its use?

Certainly not the labour intensive job it once was . Mechanisation is a marvellous thing in most cases , but it's a little sad that today's youngsters won't experience that joyous summer week of bringing in the hay .
Graft it was and the bale string cut deep into boyish hands but I would have done it for nowt .

Wonder when/if there will be electric powered tractors?

They used to tie the bales with Indian Hemp string, thats why a lot of the old farmers had funny looks.

I like the greenery in the foreground and the hay bales before they are shrouded in plastic and the trees in the distance and the rich soil yielding up it's bounty. Gone are the days 'when many hands made light work' under the boiling sun.
I suppose the farmers are happy though and that's what counts! ;-)

Many moons ago when I lived at Holland Moor, the local farmer let us kids help with the harvest. No powerful tractors then. No payment. No Health & Safety, just us having a great time. The crop was cut with a reaping machine & then a binder made the cut wheat into sheaves & we used to ' stook ' them by propping up 3 bundles together. Next day the haywain cart came, pulled by horse power & we used to chuck the sheaves up to the man on top of the cart. I sound very old but the time I am relating to was only 1950 & technology moved on.

I can relate to that Helen. We used to 'help' with the haymaking on our neighbour's farm in the mid 1950s.
The best bit was when one or two of our mothers brought tea, home made ginger beer and sandwiches, all of which we scoffed whilst sitting in the hedgerow. Highlight of the day was sitting on top of the stack of hay whilst the tractor made slow progress across the fields and home.
As you said, no such thing as Health and Safety then.

Anne, if there is a demand for an eTractor then you can bet your life that someone will come up with one.
Since the war, farmers have had to adapt to a shortage of cheap labour to work the land and they have done it by embracing new technology. I imagine this man, with one tractor can do more work in one day than six or seven men could do in the same amount of time.

Excellent photo, Anne...

Brought out some good comments...

Well done everyone. Very interesting.