Wild haymaking in Central Switzerland

Every summer, men, women and children climb up steep, difficult to access slopes to collect hay. These mountain meadows, often referred to as “Planggen”, are too steep for grazing cattle. The hay collected there is called wild hay: a type of lean hay that grows sparsely and is harvested at most once per year.
Wild haymaking is dangerous and difficult manual labour that requires the use of special techniques. Traditionally, the hay is cut with a scythe. Once the grass is dry, it is bundled into bales called “Burdene” or “Pinggel” and attached to hay ropes. These wire ropes were installed at the end of the 19th century to make it easier to transport the hay down to the valley. Today’s wild haymaking is a highly mechanised process that makes use of special motorised mowers and even helicopters for transporting the bales. However, there is no one single method of wild haymaking, but rather a blend of old and new approaches.
Wild haymaking is widespread mainly in Central Switzerland and in the Canton of Glarus and traces its roots back to the hard cheese business that developed in this region in the 17th century. The practice was abandoned in many places in the 20th century but experienced a conservation-inspired revival at the beginning of the 21st century. Dry meadows are home to a lot of biodiversity, so farmers receive direct payments to use and maintain them. Without these subsidies, very little wild hay would be harvested.

Traditional craftsmanship