OXFORD – When it comes to mowing hay, the less machinery, the better, Howard Keene of Oxford believes.

From now until the first haying season ends late this month, Keene and his two sturdy workhorses will be haying fields with farm machinery from a much earlier era.

On Wednesday, he and his two registered Percheron geldings, Nick and Casey, were up with the dawn at their Main Street home. Keene drove the team over to Selectman Floyd Thayer’s house and fields on the East Oxford Road.

The day before, the team had pulled a wheel-driven mowing machine to cut about 12 acres.

When the wheels turn, two sickle blades attached from behind cross back and forth, neatly cutting a five-foot swath.

On Wednesday the hay was ready to be dried, and for that Keene hitched his team to a hay tedder. Nicknamed “chicken kickers,” the tedder’s blades lift the hay up off the ground to get air under it so it can dry.

Once the hay is dry, Keene will come back with a cart equipped with a pinwheel rake, so the horses can make neat lines of the hay. Finally, the horses make way for a tractor that bales the hay.

“I do it this way because I prefer it,” said Keene, sitting atop the tedder, his reins at the ready. “How much noise do you hear?” Besides, he said, with the exception of the mowing machine, “this stuff all pulls easily” so it’s not hard work for the horses.

Keene already has hayed around 250 bales on eight acres of another of Thayer’s fields. He stores it in his barn, using it for feed for his five horses. “They each eat one bale a day,” he said.

The sun rose higher, and it was time to get back to work. With a flick of the reins, Keene urged his team forward.

“Get up there. Come on. That’s a boy.”