Why do I see so many hay bales being carted across the Severn into Wales? I passed no less than 5 trucks (2 double trailered) today! I usually see at least 2 trucks on my weekly (ish) drive back from Reading. This seems like an awful lot of hay being moved. Is England just really good at producing it and Wales not so?

That's what they stuff the mountains with.

Is it not straw? Seen lots of combines in the fields in the last week or so – wheat grown in flat fields then sold on as animal bedding/roughage to upland farmers with livestock?

Well being a city girl I'm not so sure if it's straw or hay… It was in bales, so assumed it was hay…straw comes in bales then too? How can you tell the difference?

Hay is long grass, straw is what's left once you've threshed grain.

There's also a tend towards consolidation, leading to "flying farms" where machinery is all kept at once central location then will go out to work on different farms on rotation. Which is odd, as a farm will be empty for ages, then suddenly full of machinery as the entire place is harvested or cultivated in one hit. It can also mean you need to transport produce about the place more.

Straw is stalks of crops like wheat, mainly used for bedding.

Hay is dried grass dried, used as a food stuff. Haylage is the moister stuff.

My missus is charging £4.50 a bale on her farm at the moment, prices have shot up apparently and people are even nicking the stuff:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10985153

^^^ hay will appear 'wispy' in bales – straw looks much more coarse

Probably for the same reason that you see lots of milk being brought from the countryside into the city…

hay is grass, and is made into silage more often than not (animal winter food) straw is the stalks from wheat etc, is coarser and rougher, and is used as bedding… IIRC

wales doesnt "do" crops, only livestock, so they will require a lot of both hay and straw importing from flatter lands for the winter period.

I think!

a brief google for "hay bale", brings up lots of pictures of straw bales, os its not JUST you 😉

Hmmmm. Well it looked like the type of bales you'd see around Halloween in people's yards, or around tracks at the derby, or that sort…probably not hay then I'm gathering as it's more useful (I imagine) because it's a food stuff. One wouldn't eat straw I presume (if one were inclined to eat grassy materials of course).

Lots of animals in Wales (cows and sheep) but not much arable land. we want the meat they need the bedding…

indeed, its very spikey and woody.
not very tasty at all.

HAY

STRAW

both are availible in "round" bales

None of the above. It's a sinister alien plot where they are using the bales to grow human look alikes that are going to take over the world.

Ah yes. I did not think about the flatness of the land and the different types of farming because of the landscape. It makes sense now. I was thinking wouldn't they have the stuff already. 'doh' Poor deductive reasoning -1 for me. 😉

My missus is charging £4.50 a bale on her farm at the moment, prices have shot up apparently and people are even nicking the stuff:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10985153

I read that on a recent car rally in Ireland, some of the big bales used for making temporary chicances were stolen overnight from the rally course! Not the smallest things to nab!

and that loverly sweet smell you get near cattle farms, which normally makes unthinking types go "pewww, pooo" when actually its very sweet not at all like poop, is silage, and is fermented grass.

Booze for Cows!

Probably for the same reason that you see lots of milk being brought from the countryside into the city…

Don't be so silly. All our milk is locally produced. Most milk herds are kept in underground pastures, but some are on the surface:

We also have a fur trade:

All our produce is free-range:

I watched a hay harvesting and automatic baling tractor thingy in a field the other days – very neat.

Yeah, they're cool. I told my 2 year old son that the bales that come out are tractor eggs – he now shouts 'egg' everytime we see them in the fields 😉

Bad Daddy…

I reckon those bailing machines probably work mostly by magic, like magnets and gyroscopes.

It's a sinister alien plot where they are using the bales to grow human look alikes that are going to take over the world.

OOoooooOOh! Is this paired with

That's what they stuff the mountains with.

I knew you Brits were really the baddies! The movies told me!

I used to do that years ago, used to sell the stuff!

Back when you had to chuck them about by hand & stack them into 8's in the field.

Would buy wet/poor quality hay from down south, then cart it up North & sell it for a killing to small holdings.

Hard work, wet hay bales weighed a stack (no pun intended).

Managed to pay off all my student loans in a season though and kept me fit.

Bean straw was the worst, cuts your hand to bits.