jump hay

1. verb, to jump on harvested hay to press it down for moving or storage; 2. noun, ‘jumping hay’

1.
“I’ve heard Dad say that when they used to pitch hay into those big boxes that they jumped the hay.”

“Dad pressed. He and Tom, they used to go around pressing as a team, like jumping hay. I imagine that’s why he had a bad heart.”

2.
“Tell her about the jumping hay.”
“Well there was this big, like, a box affair. It was quite big, and they’d throw the loose hay in it, and then two men would be in there jumping, tramping it down, and when it got so hard, they’d put these wires through it and tie it, and then they’d shove out a pressed bale, and they used to draw that all over to The States in wintertime and sell hay.”