The haylofts from the hilly countryside of the Horňácko ethnographic area have plenty of earmarks corresponding to similar farm buildings in the wide territory of East Moravia. They are isolated or stand in groups in the midst of mountain meadows, often encircled with full-grown vegetation protecting them from wind and snow. The simple buildings have only one room for hay storage. Built at higher altitudes, the foundations are made of elevated fender wall that protects the hay from humidity and snow. The buildings have either timbered structure made of local trees, or frame structure with boarded-up hewn studs. Saddle roofs with rafter framing are covered with rye-straw thatches or – later on – with burnt or concrete roof tiles. Hay was pitchforked through a hole in the front wall and then through a gable dormer.
In addition to the mountain timbered haylofts, we can see the lowland types in South-East Moravia. The buildings are usually located out of the villages on the alluvial meadows along the Morava River. Their frame structure with strung rod bundles lies on large corner stones that protect the buildings from spring floods. Some of these haylofts are located on adjacent meadows, two of them directly at our open-air museum.
Dried fodder crops stored for the winter feeding of cattle is one of the significant features distinguishing the pastoral from the settled life. The dried hay was raked into small heaps which were taken to a protected area designated for storage and built into large haystacks with a stake in the middle. In a similar way, hay has been dried and stored on wooden hay racks in the ethnographic area of Wallachia until now. Storing the hay in barns, haylofts, attics or different sheds is a very young way related probably to the intensive grassland farming. The stacked hay was transported home only in winter when sleigh could be used to transport it from the less accessible meadows.
