Nature is Never Spent

Not a stupid question! "Make" is such a nonspecific word for the process. To make hay, you let the grass/clover/alfalfa grow nice and tall and green, ideally to the peak of its nutrition level, and then you come through with a huge mowing machine pulled by a tractor. The grass is cut down just like mowing your yard, only BIGGER. You leave the grass lying out in the field for a couple of days so it can dry, and you come through once with another machine that turns it over, to aid in even drying. (It's really important during this part of the process that the sun is shining and there's no rain, so farmers have to watch the weather carefully.) Once the grass is dry, it's hay! You come through one more time with another machine that picks up the grass and compresses it into bales for storage. (The big round ones, usually, or sometimes the small rectangular ones.) Voilà, your livestock have food for the winter. :)