Hay Bales in Sekinchan
Last Sunday, out of expectation, I shot how the hay bales are made. Created an album in Facebook to share the photos with my fellow friends. A lot of people unexpectedly liked the album.
The figure actually outnumbered my NZ photo albums :)
The above shows the change of the paddy fields. From having some greens left, till the greens gradually faded, then become a total brown. The fourth photo shows the close view of grass hay.
This week, almost all the fields have been harvested. Normally, field burning is the next thing to be done by the farmers, to prepare for another new season.
Almost 3 years ago, I used to share here about the burnt fields. That is the most traditional method to clean the fields. Of course, to have the field easy to burn, it has to be sufficiently dry. These few days, rain is frequent in Sekinchan, therefore you see the burnt field in the photo above is dampened.
However, in recent years, I notice the occurence of hay bales in Sekinchan. Prior to this, I've only seen them overseas. The first picture below shows the hay bales in New Zealand (source: click here).
While being accompanied by some models, the hay bales appear to be more lively.
The photos were taken during my ex-colleagues' visit during June 2009.
In fact, I'm not too sure how and exactly when this haymaking technology was introduced to the local farmers. As far as I know, the farmers actually do not earn much by selilng these hay bales to others as animal fodder. Sometimes, after these hay bales are made, there are mischievous people burning them off before the bales are sold for a little money return (RM 50).
Normally, about 20 hay bales can be produced from half a field. You can count from the following photo, which is newly taken just today.
Some time ago, I did a search about hay bales. Wikipedia provides quite a comprehensive elaboration. From the page, it mentions there are hay of good and bad quality.
Good quality hay is green and not too coarse, and includes plant heads and leaves as well as stems. This is fresh grass/alfalfa hay, newly baled. (Source: Wikipedia)
Poor quality hay is dry, bleached out and coarse-stemmed. Sometimes, hay stored outdoors will look like this on the outside but still be green inside the bale. A dried, bleached or coarse bale is still edible and provides some nutritional value as long as it is dry and not moldy, dusty, or rotting. (Source: Wikipedia)
There are also square hays (Source of images: Wikipedia). I wonder will they occur in Sekinchan someday in the future?
Round bales are harder to handle than square bales but compress the hay more tightly.
What's the machine producing the hay bales? It's called a hay baler. In order to provide a better viewing experience of the process of haymaking, I purposely downloaded Windows Movie Maker 2.6 to manage my continous shots. This is the first movie I've ever made in my life (very simple one to start with, hehe)!
Regarding its name in Chinese, a friend, who is also an avid photography fan, calls it 卷卷草. To be frank, when I saw this term for the first time, I did go to Google Image Search to find out what's it. None of the images seem to be right! After awhile, only I realized she meant these hay bales.
What would I call it in Chinese? Personally I feel the term 卷卷草 is not perfectly suitable, as grass (草) is not the same as hay (乾草). I feel it's more suitable to be called 乾草捆 or 乾草卷.
What do you think?
The figure actually outnumbered my NZ photo albums :)
The above shows the change of the paddy fields. From having some greens left, till the greens gradually faded, then become a total brown. The fourth photo shows the close view of grass hay.
This week, almost all the fields have been harvested. Normally, field burning is the next thing to be done by the farmers, to prepare for another new season.
Almost 3 years ago, I used to share here about the burnt fields. That is the most traditional method to clean the fields. Of course, to have the field easy to burn, it has to be sufficiently dry. These few days, rain is frequent in Sekinchan, therefore you see the burnt field in the photo above is dampened.
However, in recent years, I notice the occurence of hay bales in Sekinchan. Prior to this, I've only seen them overseas. The first picture below shows the hay bales in New Zealand (source: click here).
While being accompanied by some models, the hay bales appear to be more lively.
The photos were taken during my ex-colleagues' visit during June 2009.
In fact, I'm not too sure how and exactly when this haymaking technology was introduced to the local farmers. As far as I know, the farmers actually do not earn much by selilng these hay bales to others as animal fodder. Sometimes, after these hay bales are made, there are mischievous people burning them off before the bales are sold for a little money return (RM 50).
Normally, about 20 hay bales can be produced from half a field. You can count from the following photo, which is newly taken just today.
Some time ago, I did a search about hay bales. Wikipedia provides quite a comprehensive elaboration. From the page, it mentions there are hay of good and bad quality.
Good quality hay is green and not too coarse, and includes plant heads and leaves as well as stems. This is fresh grass/alfalfa hay, newly baled. (Source: Wikipedia)
Poor quality hay is dry, bleached out and coarse-stemmed. Sometimes, hay stored outdoors will look like this on the outside but still be green inside the bale. A dried, bleached or coarse bale is still edible and provides some nutritional value as long as it is dry and not moldy, dusty, or rotting. (Source: Wikipedia)
There are also square hays (Source of images: Wikipedia). I wonder will they occur in Sekinchan someday in the future?
Round bales are harder to handle than square bales but compress the hay more tightly.
Hay is grass, legumes or other herbaceous plants that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing livestock such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. Hay is also fed to pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs. Pigs may be fed hay, but they do not digest it as efficiently as more fully herbivorous animals.
Hay is very sensitive to weather conditions, particularly when it is harvested. In drought conditions, both seed and leaf production are stunted, making hay that has a high ratio of dry coarse stems that have very low nutritional values. If the weather is too wet, the cut hay may spoil in the field before it can be baled. The hay may also develop rot and mold after being baled, creating the potential for toxins to form in the feed, which could make the animals sick. It also has to be stored in a manner to prevent it from getting wet. Mold and spoilage reduce nutritional value and may cause illness in animals.
Source: Wikipedia
What's the machine producing the hay bales? It's called a hay baler. In order to provide a better viewing experience of the process of haymaking, I purposely downloaded Windows Movie Maker 2.6 to manage my continous shots. This is the first movie I've ever made in my life (very simple one to start with, hehe)!
Regarding its name in Chinese, a friend, who is also an avid photography fan, calls it 卷卷草. To be frank, when I saw this term for the first time, I did go to Google Image Search to find out what's it. None of the images seem to be right! After awhile, only I realized she meant these hay bales.
What would I call it in Chinese? Personally I feel the term 卷卷草 is not perfectly suitable, as grass (草) is not the same as hay (乾草). I feel it's more suitable to be called 乾草捆 or 乾草卷.
What do you think?
4 comments:
卷卷草就很可爱，乾草捆就很专业的感觉咯。
對，就好像“甜甜圈”，也會給人家可愛的感覺。
hi, may i ask which part of sekinchan this is located?
Jamie, there is no fixed location for this. They may appear at any field. If you are lucky, you would see it, before they are transported elsewhere or sold off by the field owner.
Post a Comment