I thought I'd post a few pics from the farm and share a bit about what we're doing now. 8)
We make silage by chopping corn plants and storing them in silos. The plant material undergoes a fermentation process and the starches convert to sugars. Well made silage smells exactly like a sweet Va when it comes out of the silo. The process takes about a month or so.
This method of harvest will provide us cattle feed until next hay season.
Here is a picture of the operation in the field. The tractor is pulling the chopper, which cuts the plant and passes it through a rotating drum and cutting knives and then blows the material into the towed wagon.
In this picture, one can see the whole plants going into the chopper. Its a little different angle, but gopefully you can see what is happening.
Once the wagon is full, it is towed to the silos to be unloaded.
The hill behind is part of our pasture. We had a blessing of three inches of rain Sunday. I can't believe how quickly the grass greened up. I think one could have burned it off prior to the rain. We've been terribly dry this year. The worst drought since 1936. The pasture is aprox. 275 acres and there are 250 head of cattle running around out there somewhere....I haven't looked at them since Sunday, so I hope they are still there. :mrgreen:
We make silage by chopping corn plants and storing them in silos. The plant material undergoes a fermentation process and the starches convert to sugars. Well made silage smells exactly like a sweet Va when it comes out of the silo. The process takes about a month or so.
This method of harvest will provide us cattle feed until next hay season.
Here is a picture of the operation in the field. The tractor is pulling the chopper, which cuts the plant and passes it through a rotating drum and cutting knives and then blows the material into the towed wagon.
In this picture, one can see the whole plants going into the chopper. Its a little different angle, but gopefully you can see what is happening.
Once the wagon is full, it is towed to the silos to be unloaded.
The hill behind is part of our pasture. We had a blessing of three inches of rain Sunday. I can't believe how quickly the grass greened up. I think one could have burned it off prior to the rain. We've been terribly dry this year. The worst drought since 1936. The pasture is aprox. 275 acres and there are 250 head of cattle running around out there somewhere....I haven't looked at them since Sunday, so I hope they are still there. :mrgreen:
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