Corn Silage is Ready!

Today we check our corn to determine if it is ready to be chopped for silage....and it's ready!!!!  How do we know that it's ready?  Well, I drove out into the field this afternoon and collected samples of corn stalks.  In each field I chose 10 stalks of corn and chopped them with the chopper.  We collected a sample of the chopped corn, measured it, and dried it with a Koster tester (which removes water from a sample with the use of heated air).   After re-measuring the sample we can determine the moisture of the total corn plant.  It is ideal to chop corn silage at about 65-69% moisture to be packed into the silage bags.  Today's samples told us that the corn is about 64-70% moisture, so it is time to start chopping!!!  BUT....we are not ready to chop. 

Last September, we basically destroyed the processor on our chopper.  The processor is part of the chopper which crushes corn grain and corn cobs into smaller pieces which are more digestible for cows.  By processing our corn we are also able to cut the leaves and stalks into larger pieces which encourages improved rumen health for our cows.  This processor is a critical part of our corn silage chopper...and we haven't fixed it since it broke.  Today we hit the ground running, making sure that we get the chopper fixed!  Jon and his brother Marcus worked long into the evening tonight, putting on the new processor.  They are not done yet, but it did rain tonight which buys us about 1 day of additional time to get it ready to rock.  We have 9 bags of silage to make this year (each about 250 feet long and 10 feet around).  It will be a long task, but with some help from neighbors and family we will get it done as quickly as possible...so the marathon begins!!!  Corn silage season is here!!!!

Post #100! This day didn't go as planned :(

So this is my 100th post on my blog! I can't hardly believe that I made that many posts already, but I promise this one to be interesting....all about my day, another Monday that went unplanned.

The PLAN was to work on making bedding today, haul out manure, and make headway on our fall activities. INSTEAD....we had all sorts of chaos, good chaos, but chaos nonetheless. The morning began with breeding a heifer at the neighbor's farm. This took an extra 30 minutes out of our day, and meant we started milking later than expected, even though we got out of bed extra early. When we arrived at the farm we learned that the milking system wasn't working correctly so Jonathan started to work on that, while I hopped on the 4-wheeler to dry through the dry cow lot. We had a cow that was due to calve about 3 days ago. I went looking for the cow and found her, and she appeared to have calved, but there was no calf to be found. I started looking around the lot in a frantic. The calf was no where to be found, until I saw 2 little ears sticking out of the mud, wiggle. That darn new born calf had wondered her way out of the dry cow lot, where she could be with her mother and out into a big, deep mud puddle. She was fine and healthy, just very dirty! Oh dear calf! I loaded her up into the wheelbarrow and pushed her into the calf barn. Then we started her a warm bath. At first she didn't like it too much, but once she figured out that I was cleaning off all of that mud, she REALLY loved it! She was so cute. I dried her off and she was a lovely black calf. I hurried up and off to the barn to help finish milking. Now chores were about 2 hours later than planned. Jonathan and I hustled through feeding chores and ate a quick lunch. I headed off to haul manure from the heifer pens and Jonathan went into the fields to make corn straw stacks. After loading the manure spreader with my first load, I pulled out of the pen and through the open gate, slowly making sure the heifers didn't run out of the gate. I turned to look forward for a couple seconds and by the time I turned around I found that the heifers had pushed the open gate into the manure spreader and the gate got caught under the wheel of the manure spreader.....the gate was completely twisted and mangled!!!!! OH NO!!!!! I called Jon to come and rescue me! We fixed the fence and wasted another hour of our day. The sun was setting so I ran off to haul one last load of manure and Jonathan went back into the field. Wouldn't you know it, but Jonathan had a problem too! He broke the stack maker, and it needed to be fixed as well. Oofta! it's been one of those days! Just hoping that tomorrow is a better day ;) Either way we got the cows cared for, milked and we got to enjoy some AMAZING Fall Weather! So even though it didn't go as planned it still went well!

Soybeans done and bedding started

Soybeans were combined last night. So the custom combiner came in at about 5 pm and finished up late last night. We didn't have too many acres of beans this year, since we had lots of corn and alfalfa for cow feed. Jonathan got the stack maker up and running yesterday. He went out yesterday afternoon and made corn stacks...I have video to be posted soon.

This week, thanks to the great forecast we are hoping to make all the bedding we will need for the cows this year. We are also hoping to haul out all of the manure, work it in, and be finished for the year! Phew! Getting tired just thinking about it! haha! I'll keep you up to date as we finish our Fall Projects!