Understanding of social-ecological systems’ complexity is challenging. Examining land use can bring us closer to understanding, as studying land-use practices provides a great insight into the complexity of interactions between social and ecological components of systems. We studied a social-ecological system in Gyimes, Eastern Carpathians, Romania. The local economy of the studied system is based on animal husbandry and extensive grassland management. Grassland management is optimized for the quality, and quantity of the hay. So, haymaking, and especially the decision about the time of haymaking is a seemingly simple, but crucial factor in local agriculture. Studying of the ecological, cultural, social, and political context of the decision about time of haymaking, we designed an interview- and participatory observation-based qualitative analysis, which reveals the direct and indirect drivers affecting the time of haymaking, and to study all the trade-offs made by the local farmers balancing between quality and quantity of hay, livestock wellbeing, economic consideration or EU agricultural policy measures. We conducted semi-structured interviews (n=85) and organized focus group discussions (n=2) altogether with 52 local farmers in Gyimes. Time of haymaking is a leverage point in small-scale, extensive grassland management systems, surrounded by trade-offs made by local farmers, especially from the ‘70s. Not only the time of haymaking has changed a lot since World War II, but also the number and impact of direct and indirect ecological, economic, social, cultural, and political drivers affecting decision-making increased. As a consequence, more and more trade-offs made by local farmers are needed to balance between quality and long-term quantity of the harvested hay. A network of drivers and changes has led to significant changes in the time of haymaking, partly following the accelerated ripening of the vegetation, partly affected by other social, cultural, or political effects. Consideration of all of the diverse social and cultural contexts, ecological background, political (legal) environment surrounding the seemingly simple decision about the time of haymaking, helps to gain a deeper insight and understanding the decision-making processes in complex social-ecological systems. This understanding helps build fruitful cooperation with local farmers managing High Nature Value semi-natural grasslands in cultural landscapes.