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Raking the hay with heavy horses (image)
Before farmers made silage they would make hay. This was a very labour intensive task, even when the invention of horse-drawn tedders and rakes sped up the process.
Heavy horses would be put to work early in the morning, before the sun was up and made the work too hot. Once the hay was cut, it was left to lay in the fields to dry and would be turned over every few days to make sure it dried properly (stacking wet hay could lead to spontaneous combustion!). The dry hay was then raked into small heaps, loaded onto horse-drawn carts, and pulled back to the stackyard, where it would be stacked for use as animal fodder later in the year.