Numerous landscape features attest to the centuries-old harvesting of hay on meadows, often far from farms. Lean meadows were neither grazed by cattle nor fertilised with manure. They were located on land that was too wet, sloping marshes or too steep to be grazed by cattle, but interesting enough to be mown. This is the case of the mowing meadows on the very steep, sunny slopes of the Vanils mountain range. The mowers lived for several weeks on these slopes, sleeping in huts, modest stone shelters built right into the slope, many of which can still be seen in the Mérils cirque. The hay was carried down the slope in ropes, on the backs of men and/or slid down the slope, to the hay barns or haystacks, sheltered from the avalanches. In winter, the hay was collected there and transported to the cowsheds, usually in bundles tied together to form coubles, which slid directly over the snow. During the first half of the twentieth century, numerous cableways were installed to facilitate this transport.

Typical of the Pays-d'Enhaut landscape, haylofts are small buildings generally containing a single room for storing hay. Made simply of planks fixed to a framework of beams or planks, they have now lost their original function and most have disappeared. Some of the fodder harvested in the Mérils was stored in the well-preserved haylofts in the Trois Fenils area. Many farmers in the Pays-d'Enhaut are still harvesting rock hay, as they are always on the lookout for fodder to winter the livestock that will make the most of the mountain pastures in the summer, with the production of L'Etivaz PDO cheese. The largest mown area is in the Mérils cirque. The ecological compensation measures in the current agricultural policy encourage the mowing of these plots, known for their exceptional botanical quality. Helicopters can now be used to bring down the hay, but the work of tedding on these steep slopes is still very arduous. It is generally carried out in shifts between haymaking and regrowth in the valley.