haymaking

plural haymakings

1. countableuncountableThe cutting of grass and subsequently curing it to make hay as fodder for animals.

   The red-painted farm-houses, peculiar to Norway, lay picturesquely scattered on the higher points of the undulating valley, where men and women were busy hay-making.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 279

   2 more examples

   They especially liked to be with the mowers in the hay-making season, seating themselves, greatly to their satisfaction, on the long thick branch of a maple-tree, among the dense foliage.

   1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 93

   Harvesting. With the aid of thoroughly up-to-date machinery, lucerne haymaking on the farm has become a regular routine. Briefly, the hay is cut with an ordinary mower, drawn into windrows with a rotary rake, picked up by a hay loader, carted direct to a derrick press, baled and wired without the formality of being stacked, and drawn at once to the railway. From waving lucerne in the paddock to fragrant hay on the truck something less than three days is involved in the height of the season, and a team of eight men, including the foreman, keep pace with the growth of 120 acres.

   1922, New South Wales Department of Agriculture, “Leguminous Crops”, in The Farmers' Handbook, 4th edition, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia: John Spence, page 557

2. countableuncountableTaking full advantage of an opportunity while it lasts.

   In their haymaking days, the Spoonful created a string of '60s chestnuts: "Do You Believe In Magic?", "You Didn't Have To Be So Nice," "Daydream," "Summer In The City," "Nashville Cats."

   1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 330