The guys here are busy chopping corn silage.
The fields are emptying and the bunker is filling.
Typically they don’t make silage until a week or two after Labor Day. The drought has sped everything up.
Being the silage was harvested early the insurance adjuster was called out. Yield on the crop was about 100 bushels per acre. That means more than half less of last year’s crop.
There is much less corn in the silage making it harder to pack, but Hubby’s a trooper and doing the best he can.
For those of you not familiar with making silage, it goes a little like this. There is one guy out in the field with tractor, chopper and wagon. The corn stalk and ears of corn on the stalk are chopped finely into silage. The wagon gets filled. There are two guys who drive wagons back and forth from the field to the bunker.
The bunker has cement walls that hold the silage in place. The wagon is brought to the bunker. There is a guy there who operates the blower. He gets the silage into the blower and the blower blows the silage into the bunker.
Hubbies job is to pack the silage and level it off. All day long he drives the tractor back and forth leveling and packing. The better packed it is, the more fits in the bunker and the better the silage will be preserved. It’s quite a process.
I am always glad when it’s over. By the looks of things I only have a half day left to fret about it.
I know the yield is low this year, but at least prices are high. Kind of like us – we don’t have any grass, but cattle prices are good. DH and I went to a feed seminar yesterday and discussed prices and supply. They fed us lunch at the country club and we won a door prize: 2 sacks of mineral. Now that’s MY kind of lunch date! :)
Wow! What an interesting story you tell. Being a country gal I know what silage is but so many city gals might not understand the importance of silage for feed. Thanks for a very different post. Very refreshing.
You are lucky to be getting 100 bu/acre. Farmers around here are only getting 50, if that.
What an interesting story. Thank you for explaing what sileage is and how you harvest it. It is sad to hear the quantity has dropped for you. I hope other things are up to compensate for it.
Thanks for the reminder of what silage is. First I heard of it was from your blog. Does a cover go on top? Or does it get rained/snowed on? Interesting what happens in different parts of the country.
Very interesting. Since I am a city girl this was all new to me. Looks like a lot of very hard work..
Wow, so that’s what my neighbor is doing! LOL
We’ve been wondering. And with us being new to the country, most of this is new to me.
Yes, 100 per acre is good. I’ve been hearing that they only expect 40-45 per acre here in Missouri.
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