Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Horses & Hay

Two horses enjoying each others company over nibbles.
Speaking of nibbles, even mid March long after harvest, bales of hay are out on some East Gwillimbury fields with little protection from the weather. Apparently, round bales shed rainfall and retain food quality.

Do you know the difference between hay and straw?

HAY: grasses and legumes (such as clover and alfalfa), which farmers feed to their livestock because it’s loaded with nutrients

STRAW: after harvesting, leftover stalks of plants (such as oats, wheat and barley), which is great for bedding because it’s absorbent and lightweight.
And now for something completely different but still beginning with the letter H, why not visit Mrs. Nesbitt?

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

Horses seem to ignore the photographer completely, but I really like the hay picture. Something in that combination of hay and snow makes nice package.

hpy said...

You do have more snow than we have - I haven't even seen any this winter.

Pernille said...

Beautiful horses and wonderful photos for the letter H!!
Have a nice day:)

Small City Scenes said...

Funny that we both posted horse pictures. Well, mine are ponies. We have no snow but no grass either, it just is too early to start growing so we still feed hay.
It is so wet here I suppose is why most farmers put the round bales in the barn. MB

Liz Hinds said...

Nice photos and interesting definitions. I didn't know the difference.

Anne-Berit said...

Great choices for the letter H:o)

Rune Eide said...

Interesting about the difference in English between hay and straw. In Norwegian many straws make hay. Our word for "you" straw would probably be "halm".

PS Nelsons answer would probably be: "Do your duty!"

DeeMom said...

Great pictures of the horses and the snow and Hay

Great "H" post

Daryl said...

Beautiful H's!

Lilli & Nevada said...

I love horses great set of H's and they all go together

Leslie: said...

Thanks for explaining the difference. Horse photos are always lovely and serene.

Kerri Farley said...

GREAT H post! I did not know the difference between Hay and Straw!

Andrea said...

And horses and hay do go together. Great post

Petunia said...

Horses are one of the most beautiful animal on earth. Every picture of them are wonderful!
Love your post:)

Gunilla said...

beautyful H:photos today!

mrsnesbitt said...

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyy! LOL!

Happyone said...

There are quite a few Horses for H today.
Nice photos and I didn't know the difference bewteen straw and hay before, thanks for clearing that up.

VP said...

Hey hey - that's a great H, and it's not all snow either!

photowannabe said...

Didn't know the difference between hay and straw. That's what I love about blogging. One can learn so much.
Great H posts.

VP said...

Hi thought I'd pop over to answer your tulip questions you lefy over at my place -

Yes I keep them in the pot alll year (though most 'experts' recommend you dig them up and store them each year) and I get the same number of blooms each year.

Daniel Chérouvrier said...

Good lesson about the true meaning of "hay" and nice horses (they don't wear any "coat" !).

EG CameraGirl said...

Deslilas,
Horses wear coats here on cold days for sure. These two are standing in the sun so maybe they didn't need coats the day this was photographed.

Anonymous said...

This is a nice post. I love horses and dogs so I feel right at home here. Round hay never used to exist but rectangle bales did and those weighed about 80 pounds and we had to pick them up and throw them up onto a hay wagon and a man or boy with a hay hook dragged them back on the wagon and stacked them over head high before taking the load into the barn where they were stacked for the winter. It was a lot of hard work and farmers hired a lot of kids to do most of it. I know I did a lot of it. So I am guessing round bales are easier to move since they move them with tractors here. And they seem to work outside too. That is another benefit.

I have baled a lot of hay and straw both but the good old days was when the grain like wheat was brought up to the back of the barn where a big old steam engine was belching black smoke and running a threshing machine. Men used pitch forks to throw the loose wheat into the thresher and that knocked the grain off and blew the leftover straw into a monumental pile where it stayed all winter. It was still used to bed down the horses and cows but it was forked in from the pile.

Your post brought back a lot of memories.

Thanks for your visit to my blog.

Miss_Yves said...

Thank you for your kind comment.
Snow is rare in the west of France...
So, these
beautiful landscapes make me dream!
Do you know the famous painting of J.F. Millet, "les glaneuses ": some poor women collect ears of wheat ?
miss Yves

Kostas said...

Splendid and instructive post, marvellous the photographs!

Barbara said...

I love horses, that is a lovely photo!

AVCr8teur said...

It still looks cold in East Gwillimbury. Thanks for the map on your blog because I didn't know where that was. It looks like cake icing on the hay.

Paulie said...

Great H examples for this week! I love seeing the snow!

Gordon said...

Nice photos and interesting information; I have never thought about the differences between hay & straw - now I know.

Dragonstar said...

I love these photos. You have a nice blog.

Jilly said...

Lovely photographs. Beautiful horses. Welcome to the CDP family!

EG CameraGirl said...

Miss_Yves,

Yes. I'm familiar with the Millet's painting The Gleaners, the women gathering up the leftovers of the grain harvest to feed their families. It's a beautiful picture of a hard life.

Old Man Lincoln,
It sounds like you worked hard when you were a kid but have happy memories of it.

Janet said...

What perfect subjects for H.

Neva said...

First, I am so glad you put your arrow on the map so I knew where you were coming from!!! the things I have learned doing this blog....wow....and your hay and horses.....very good choices and Now I know the difference between hay and straw,,,,,,who knew? not me , apparently!

Tom said...

Ha! I did wonder at the differance between Hay and Straw.. Those round bales are the same over here also.. normally cover in black plastic bags.. in some areas these black plastic bags have been blown in the trees and at this time of year it really is a terrible sight.. and noise with the wind flapping the black plastic. It looks like a witches grave yard.

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East Gwillimbury is a rural town less than an hour north of Toronto, Canada's largest city. My family calls me CameraGirl because I take my camera with me wherever I go.