The Barley Mow is a common name for pubs in the English Midlands (and maybe other parts of the country), with the ‘cow’ pronunciation; it’s puzzled me since I was a kid. There’s a folk song called ‘Good luck to The Barley Mow’. It’s one of those cumulative ones (like ‘The old lady who swallowed a fly), and list everybody remotely connected with the pub, from the brewer to the slavey (serving-girl).
But for some still-puzzling reason, the name is pronounced the ‘moe’ way. No doubt a modern misinterpretation of a printed text. I’ll continue to learn my traditional songs in the traditional way (from gramophone records).
[…] with close to 3000 bales stacked in the hay mow, and just two more fields to mow, one more that is ready to bale, this crazy summer is working out […]
Katherine:
November 25th, 2013 at 1:07 pm
I grew up on a farm in Southwestern Ontario (Canada) and we called that part of our barn, where the hay was stored, the haymow :-)
bob:
December 30th, 2014 at 9:18 pm
I grew up in northern wisconsin and we called the top part of the barn the hay mow as well – it means the part of the barn, not the hay piled there.
Marcia Buck Barker:
January 18th, 2015 at 5:34 pm
Growing up on the Maine coast we played in the mow. It was part of the barn not the hay.
Judith:
March 7th, 2015 at 8:43 am
Grew up in North Dakota and am of Norwegian heritage. As a child we loved to play in the hay mow (rhymes with cow) on Grandpa’s farm. Interchangeable with hayloft.
Marceil Skifter:
April 25th, 2015 at 6:45 pm
Originally from California, I didn’t know the difference between a haymow and hayloft, and thought for years the terms were interchangeable.
My husband, a Minnesota farm boy has finally educated me as to the difference.
Everyone knows what a “loft” is in a house – made with three walls and open along one side that overlooks the lower floor. It is the same with a hayloft – hay can be pitched out over the open side to anywhere below to feed cattle (or straw for bedding).
A haymow, which is usually found in colder parts of the country, is a second story that covers the entire area below. To access the hay, one climbs a ladder to reach the opening in the floor of the haymow (which is also the “ceiling” of the first floor)and the hay is pitched down through that hole to feed the cattle below.(Both a loft and a haymow have a big door that opens in the front to the outside, as well, as this is how the day is put up in the mow.)
Having the mow built across the first floor, where the cows are kept keeps the heat in during the cold winter months. An open loft would mean the heat rises to the top of the barn and doesn’t keep the cattle as warm. (The barns are not heated, of course, except for the body heat of the cows.) Also, there are almost always doors on the openings to keep the heat from escaping.
He also pointed out the opening to the mow is usually along the side where the cows are lined up in their stanchions, and situated halfway between the cows for better dispersal. If cows are lined up on both sides, there might be two openings (one on either side), as it was in his family’s barn.
So, there’s everything you always wanted to know about haymows vs haylofts!
Don:
April 28th, 2015 at 9:18 pm
Grew up on the farm in Concord Twp, Jackson County, Michigan. Our barn was L-Shaped and had three separate mows (rhymes with cow). Dad planted Timothy & Clover which we’d bale and put up in one mow. We also had Alfalfa which we’d bale and put up in another mow. We’d harvest wheat and oats and then bale the straw and put that up in another mow. Timothy & Clover we’d feed to the yearlings, steers and bulls. Dad would feed the Timothy to the milk cows (Holsteins). The straw was used for bedding in the pens and stanchions.
Don:
April 28th, 2015 at 9:19 pm
Oops, …feed the Alfalfa to the milk cows…
Jean:
July 8th, 2015 at 7:53 pm
Very interesting reading! Don, do you know why certain animals were fed different types of hay? Just curious :-)
Jean:
July 8th, 2015 at 7:54 pm
Thank you for posting this explanation, very interesting reading, I enjoyed it, bringing back many memories of growing up in Iowa :-)
Christina:
December 22nd, 2016 at 5:19 pm
Lovely bit of research – interesting all the way to Crusty!
I can’t help thinking of the word maw (gaping open mouth) when I see “mow” in the context of a barn! The hayloft is, to me at least, a big open mouth, waiting to receive hay from the field, and digest/regurgitate it in bits as needed.
In any case, I can’t wait to use the term with one of my horsie friends: “Hey, where’s your hay mow?” lol!
Suzanne:
May 5th, 2017 at 11:06 pm
I thought everyone that said ‘mow’ was just mispronouncing the word ‘mound’
1950’s and ’60’s in Wisconsin, we had farm neighbors on both sides. Elderly sisters on one side had a large bank barn with a loft on one end they used for bales of straw, as it’s lighter, and the hay mow was underneath (also had a naughty little German ditty about the hay mow, I shan’t repeat). They argued once about whether the haystack was also a mow, or a ‘mound’. I remember Timothy was reserved for horses, alfalfa for cows and they also put cracked corn/chopped sorghum silage in two silos for cows.
Mark:
January 8th, 2018 at 1:54 pm
I grew up in rural Indiana and played and worked as a child in the hay mow (rhymes with cow). Sometimes you had to use the term loft for some non-locals to understand or when friends from the city came to visit and were clueless about climbing thirty feet into the mow and jumping or swinging from a rope and landing in a large pile of broken bales of straw below. Guess I understand now why there were a few pretty bad sprains or broken arms and legs….lol
I grew up in the cheese-making dairy area along the Illinois-Wisconsin border. “All” the dairy barns had mows, as described above, and the hay was “always” baled alfalfa. Local usage there included a verb “to mow” (cow pronunciation) which meant the orderly stacking of bales as they tumbled into the hay-mow off the elevator. Has anyone else heard this “mowing” usage?
(Curious city-folk trying to visualize this should Google “hay elevator”). I recall going out once with a local farm girl and asking what she enjoyed doing. Her reply was mowing hay (cow, not hoe). Kinda impressive, she….
Daryl Chesterman:
August 17th, 2019 at 6:10 pm
Jean, since Don did not reply to your question of “why certain animals were fed different types of hay”, I will give you my best answer. Even back in the day when Don’s father fed different hay to different animals, they had figured out that milk cows produced more, and better tasting milk, when fed alfalfa, than other types of plant feed. Steers, yearlings and bulls, did not need as “rich” of feed as alfalfa, and were thus fed the timothy & clover mix. I’m guessing that the milk cows were also fed some grain at milking time. Back in that time, it was believed that steers and yearlings didn’t need the nutrition that milk cows needed, and thus the less-rich feed of timothy & clover. The timothy supplied roughage(filler, or bulk) along with the richer clover(clover nutrients being similar to alfalfa). The bull actually didn’t need the richness of the timothy & clover, but, since that is what they had to feed to it, that is what it got. The bull didn’t need to grow more frame or be fattened, it just needed to be kept healthy for the breeding season.
My grandparents in west-central Indiana had a hay mow (cow) in which they stored baled hay, and their sons would carry bales over to the holes they had by the wall on one side, cut the twines, and push the hay down the holes, where it would fall into the stanchions below, to be distributed to the cows they milked.
Jenta:
January 29th, 2020 at 3:01 pm
As a little girl on a Dakota farm, I was forbidden to go up into the hay mow. I broke the rule and my little brother and I went up there to chase and rescue orphaned kittens. I got in trouble for that.
Teresa:
March 1st, 2020 at 11:05 am
I grew up on a farm in South Dakota. We also referred to the hay loft as a hay mow (rhymes with cow).
Barbara:
November 29th, 2020 at 2:38 pm
My grandfather, who grew up in Kansas/Nebraska in the 1880s and ’90s always talked about gray, cool, cloudy days as being a good day to spend in the hay mow (he pronounced to rhyme with cow). Since today where I am is that sort of day, I thought I’d check to see exactly what he had meant and got a great deal of information from this posting. Thank you.
Displaced urbanite here. Bought the antique (1891) dairy barn across the street from my house (plus farmhouse and sheds). I’m two generations removed from my Driftmier roots in Shenandoah, Iowa but I had the words Hay Mow in my mind to describe the second story of my new old barn that I’m restoring. I suspected I was pronouncing it wrong and that doubt led me to this thread and I’m so glad I did. What a grand learning adventure this is.
Dewey Shirley:
July 13th, 2021 at 11:44 am
Did not mean to post that until I was finished – my computer has a mind of it’s own. We thought the word “mow” (Cow) was a mispronuncement of the word “mound”. Thanks for the correction.
Dewey
susan stauffer:
September 6th, 2021 at 1:38 pm
I did not intend to take a “word frolic” when I referred to the hay mow in a post to my cousin about her invisible dogs, but I’ve had a great time reading this as well as all of the informed comments! (I was just wondering if the hay mow was a regional colloquialism). Thanks! It’s been like coffee and chocolate!
Jesika G:
February 14th, 2022 at 5:20 pm
This is the first entry on the word detective website I’ve consumed. Now I find myself hungry for many more!
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Steve Parkes:
December 19th, 2011 at 12:12 pm
The Barley Mow is a common name for pubs in the English Midlands (and maybe other parts of the country), with the ‘cow’ pronunciation; it’s puzzled me since I was a kid. There’s a folk song called ‘Good luck to The Barley Mow’. It’s one of those cumulative ones (like ‘The old lady who swallowed a fly), and list everybody remotely connected with the pub, from the brewer to the slavey (serving-girl).
But for some still-puzzling reason, the name is pronounced the ‘moe’ way. No doubt a modern misinterpretation of a printed text. I’ll continue to learn my traditional songs in the traditional way (from gramophone records).
Black-flies, Hiccups, and “Tedding The Dew Off” | Catamount Aviation & Under Orion Farm:
June 22nd, 2012 at 12:04 pm
[…] with close to 3000 bales stacked in the hay mow, and just two more fields to mow, one more that is ready to bale, this crazy summer is working out […]
Katherine:
November 25th, 2013 at 1:07 pm
I grew up on a farm in Southwestern Ontario (Canada) and we called that part of our barn, where the hay was stored, the haymow :-)
bob:
December 30th, 2014 at 9:18 pm
I grew up in northern wisconsin and we called the top part of the barn the hay mow as well – it means the part of the barn, not the hay piled there.
Marcia Buck Barker:
January 18th, 2015 at 5:34 pm
Growing up on the Maine coast we played in the mow. It was part of the barn not the hay.
Judith:
March 7th, 2015 at 8:43 am
Grew up in North Dakota and am of Norwegian heritage. As a child we loved to play in the hay mow (rhymes with cow) on Grandpa’s farm. Interchangeable with hayloft.
Marceil Skifter:
April 25th, 2015 at 6:45 pm
Originally from California, I didn’t know the difference between a haymow and hayloft, and thought for years the terms were interchangeable.
My husband, a Minnesota farm boy has finally educated me as to the difference.
Everyone knows what a “loft” is in a house – made with three walls and open along one side that overlooks the lower floor. It is the same with a hayloft – hay can be pitched out over the open side to anywhere below to feed cattle (or straw for bedding).
A haymow, which is usually found in colder parts of the country, is a second story that covers the entire area below. To access the hay, one climbs a ladder to reach the opening in the floor of the haymow (which is also the “ceiling” of the first floor)and the hay is pitched down through that hole to feed the cattle below.(Both a loft and a haymow have a big door that opens in the front to the outside, as well, as this is how the day is put up in the mow.)
Having the mow built across the first floor, where the cows are kept keeps the heat in during the cold winter months. An open loft would mean the heat rises to the top of the barn and doesn’t keep the cattle as warm. (The barns are not heated, of course, except for the body heat of the cows.) Also, there are almost always doors on the openings to keep the heat from escaping.
He also pointed out the opening to the mow is usually along the side where the cows are lined up in their stanchions, and situated halfway between the cows for better dispersal. If cows are lined up on both sides, there might be two openings (one on either side), as it was in his family’s barn.
So, there’s everything you always wanted to know about haymows vs haylofts!
Don:
April 28th, 2015 at 9:18 pm
Grew up on the farm in Concord Twp, Jackson County, Michigan. Our barn was L-Shaped and had three separate mows (rhymes with cow). Dad planted Timothy & Clover which we’d bale and put up in one mow. We also had Alfalfa which we’d bale and put up in another mow. We’d harvest wheat and oats and then bale the straw and put that up in another mow. Timothy & Clover we’d feed to the yearlings, steers and bulls. Dad would feed the Timothy to the milk cows (Holsteins). The straw was used for bedding in the pens and stanchions.
Don:
April 28th, 2015 at 9:19 pm
Oops, …feed the Alfalfa to the milk cows…
Jean:
July 8th, 2015 at 7:53 pm
Very interesting reading! Don, do you know why certain animals were fed different types of hay? Just curious :-)
Jean:
July 8th, 2015 at 7:54 pm
Thank you for posting this explanation, very interesting reading, I enjoyed it, bringing back many memories of growing up in Iowa :-)
Christina:
December 22nd, 2016 at 5:19 pm
Lovely bit of research – interesting all the way to Crusty!
I can’t help thinking of the word maw (gaping open mouth) when I see “mow” in the context of a barn! The hayloft is, to me at least, a big open mouth, waiting to receive hay from the field, and digest/regurgitate it in bits as needed.
In any case, I can’t wait to use the term with one of my horsie friends: “Hey, where’s your hay mow?” lol!
Suzanne:
May 5th, 2017 at 11:06 pm
I thought everyone that said ‘mow’ was just mispronouncing the word ‘mound’
dan:
August 7th, 2017 at 10:57 pm
1950’s and ’60’s in Wisconsin, we had farm neighbors on both sides. Elderly sisters on one side had a large bank barn with a loft on one end they used for bales of straw, as it’s lighter, and the hay mow was underneath (also had a naughty little German ditty about the hay mow, I shan’t repeat). They argued once about whether the haystack was also a mow, or a ‘mound’. I remember Timothy was reserved for horses, alfalfa for cows and they also put cracked corn/chopped sorghum silage in two silos for cows.
Mark:
January 8th, 2018 at 1:54 pm
I grew up in rural Indiana and played and worked as a child in the hay mow (rhymes with cow). Sometimes you had to use the term loft for some non-locals to understand or when friends from the city came to visit and were clueless about climbing thirty feet into the mow and jumping or swinging from a rope and landing in a large pile of broken bales of straw below. Guess I understand now why there were a few pretty bad sprains or broken arms and legs….lol
Mark:
May 1st, 2019 at 8:09 am
I grew up in the cheese-making dairy area along the Illinois-Wisconsin border. “All” the dairy barns had mows, as described above, and the hay was “always” baled alfalfa. Local usage there included a verb “to mow” (cow pronunciation) which meant the orderly stacking of bales as they tumbled into the hay-mow off the elevator. Has anyone else heard this “mowing” usage?
(Curious city-folk trying to visualize this should Google “hay elevator”). I recall going out once with a local farm girl and asking what she enjoyed doing. Her reply was mowing hay (cow, not hoe). Kinda impressive, she….
Daryl Chesterman:
August 17th, 2019 at 6:10 pm
Jean, since Don did not reply to your question of “why certain animals were fed different types of hay”, I will give you my best answer. Even back in the day when Don’s father fed different hay to different animals, they had figured out that milk cows produced more, and better tasting milk, when fed alfalfa, than other types of plant feed. Steers, yearlings and bulls, did not need as “rich” of feed as alfalfa, and were thus fed the timothy & clover mix. I’m guessing that the milk cows were also fed some grain at milking time. Back in that time, it was believed that steers and yearlings didn’t need the nutrition that milk cows needed, and thus the less-rich feed of timothy & clover. The timothy supplied roughage(filler, or bulk) along with the richer clover(clover nutrients being similar to alfalfa). The bull actually didn’t need the richness of the timothy & clover, but, since that is what they had to feed to it, that is what it got. The bull didn’t need to grow more frame or be fattened, it just needed to be kept healthy for the breeding season.
My grandparents in west-central Indiana had a hay mow (cow) in which they stored baled hay, and their sons would carry bales over to the holes they had by the wall on one side, cut the twines, and push the hay down the holes, where it would fall into the stanchions below, to be distributed to the cows they milked.
Jenta:
January 29th, 2020 at 3:01 pm
As a little girl on a Dakota farm, I was forbidden to go up into the hay mow. I broke the rule and my little brother and I went up there to chase and rescue orphaned kittens. I got in trouble for that.
Teresa:
March 1st, 2020 at 11:05 am
I grew up on a farm in South Dakota. We also referred to the hay loft as a hay mow (rhymes with cow).
Barbara:
November 29th, 2020 at 2:38 pm
My grandfather, who grew up in Kansas/Nebraska in the 1880s and ’90s always talked about gray, cool, cloudy days as being a good day to spend in the hay mow (he pronounced to rhyme with cow). Since today where I am is that sort of day, I thought I’d check to see exactly what he had meant and got a great deal of information from this posting. Thank you.
Paul Driftmier:
May 7th, 2021 at 8:04 pm
Displaced urbanite here. Bought the antique (1891) dairy barn across the street from my house (plus farmhouse and sheds). I’m two generations removed from my Driftmier roots in Shenandoah, Iowa but I had the words Hay Mow in my mind to describe the second story of my new old barn that I’m restoring. I suspected I was pronouncing it wrong and that doubt led me to this thread and I’m so glad I did. What a grand learning adventure this is.
Dewey Shirley:
July 13th, 2021 at 11:44 am
Did not mean to post that until I was finished – my computer has a mind of it’s own. We thought the word “mow” (Cow) was a mispronuncement of the word “mound”. Thanks for the correction.
Dewey
susan stauffer:
September 6th, 2021 at 1:38 pm
I did not intend to take a “word frolic” when I referred to the hay mow in a post to my cousin about her invisible dogs, but I’ve had a great time reading this as well as all of the informed comments! (I was just wondering if the hay mow was a regional colloquialism). Thanks! It’s been like coffee and chocolate!
Jesika G:
February 14th, 2022 at 5:20 pm
This is the first entry on the word detective website I’ve consumed. Now I find myself hungry for many more!