The grass is mowed into swathes and allowed to dry (wilt) for about a day until the moisture reaches the right level. The grass is then picked up by a harvester, chopped into very fine pieces, and blown into a dump wagon.By the way...the two birds swooping about in the photo are turkey vultures. Apparently they spent all afternoon following the harvester...and I didn't even know we had turkey vultures in this area.
A truck with a box made specifically for hauling silage arrives to collect the chopped grass...
...and hauls it to the bunker silo to be unloaded.
The chopped grass now needs to be compressed...this is done with the good old JD tractor at our place. Once the stack is well-packed, the pile is covered with plastic...recycled rubber tires are placed over the surface to provide weight and seal the plastic. After about 48 hours the fermentation process begins...and in a few weeks the pickled grass is ready to serve.
Here's the bunker that they are feeding from right now...grass that was cut in May. It may not look all that appetizing...and it smells even worse than it looks...but the animals love it. The silage, hay and grains are mixed together in a mixer wagon and then dished out for the cows to enjoy!
They are quite fond of their ration...and always eager to dig in!The last of the mowed grass was hauled into the bunker late last night...and just in time, because it rained again over night. So in case you were wondering how your milk is produced...that is your lesson in a nutshell.
Have a wonderful day...
Thank you Judy for this refresher course on silage..it's good to see it with pictures.
ReplyDeleteI grew up on a dairy farm..some great memories! At the same time I did not want to marry a dairy farmer! hehe
Thank you. . . I love the pictures to explain it all .. I din't know that the silage was mixed with the regular feed and hay .. .that makes sense. . kind of like dressing on salad. . right?
ReplyDeleteI did try to click on the pictures to enlarge to see the cows. . didn't happen. .
I did note that the barn looked nice and clean . .mention that to your men .. I remember going in barns of my friends and woah. . not so clean in the olden days. . but somehow I bet your barns have always been clean .. right?
oh and I forgot to say my bun dough is rising and my filling is cooling .. .woo hoo. Meat buns for our picnic tomorrow. . thanks for the recipe. . .
ReplyDeleteThis is all news to me...interesting news. I'm going to share it with an old pig farmer friend of mine...I'm sure that he'd be interested.
ReplyDeleteYour farm is a beautiful one, Judy. Everything looks great even the pickled silage.
Good lesson! Too bad you can't share the smell!
ReplyDeleteYou know, Judy, I found that really interesting. My husband grew up on a tobacco farm, but I grew up in a city. He still teases me about some of the things I don't know. (I won't embarrass myself here by sharing some of those things.)
ReplyDeleteHe is going to be really impressed when I use some of my new knowledge on him.
Judy, you have given a city girl a lesson today. I can't help but compare how different our landscape is. I'm in the big city and you are out there with such a big beautiful scene. Those cows look happy to me! I'm glad you explained all this because I read the 'silage' and I really wasn't sure what it was. I'll bet you have wonderful hamburgers. yummy
ReplyDeleteHey, thanks Judy. Wow....a real visit to a dairy farm! What a beautiful farm you have too. I absolutely love it! Thanks for the interesting tour and information. I would never have known about pickled grass, silage or whatever.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I do wish I had another batch of your yummy meat buns in the oven but...instead I am testing out one of my mom's old recipes...chocolate buttermilk spice cake....posting is not far away I think
Oh Judy this was sooo interesting to me. We were surrounded with dairy farms in CA and I've always wanted to know the process of this stinky stuff! And I opened up your blog this evening and wa-la here you are describing what silage is, how funny!!
ReplyDeleteWell I have to say, your farm does circles around the one's I've been around. Your place is gorgeous, and I beleive you really have "Happy Cows", there's NO happy cows in CA, I don't care what the commericals say. The daries in the Valley are large, stinky, and hot! I feel so sorry for those poor cows standing in all their muck all the time, yuck, it's just pitiful Judy! They don't live on those pretty green meadows that the commerical shows, not at all. So hat's off to you and your husband for a respectable dairy farm!!!
Also enjoyed your previous post, what a neat place. The bear cracked me up, we have those around here too, and those old cabins, I love them, I see them all over the place here.
Have a good evening!
A most interesting post! I've never seen that kind of "dump wagon" before. No one uses that sort of thing around here.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of "pickled grass"!
Hmmmm, I guess cows cannot be complimented on their good taste! It's interesting that they would be eating fresh grass out in the fields yet they love that stinky fermented stuff! I assume it digests more easily in their multiple stomachs since it's fermented?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the silage lesson...I knew none of this before.
We have one more question . .how long does it last or keep?
ReplyDeleteLovella...we always feed it within a year, but it will last for a couple of years.
ReplyDeletethanks for the info judy,i am only 12 and that helped me learn more so i will use your good info and use it for some of my homework (its a project on silage for science)
ReplyDeleteThanks
:)
thanks for the info judy,i am only 12 and that helped me learn more so i will use your good info and use it for some of my homework (its a project on silage for science)
ReplyDeleteThanks
:)
thanks for the info judy,i am only 12 and that helped me learn more so i will use your good info and use it for some of my homework (its a project on silage for science)
ReplyDeleteThanks
:)