Filling the Pantry: Silage Cutting 2020

 

Having a well-stocked pantry took on a whole new meaning this year. While we've always eaten the majority of our meals at home, suddenly all of America was scouring the freezer and the pantry for yet another meal to make during the stay-at-home orders due to Covid-19.

At the time, I joked that we could live off my food stash for a good long time. I grew up in a farm family, 15 minutes away from a grocery store. It wasn't a matter of running down to the corner store to get one lone missing ingredient to complete a meal. My mom had a well-stocked pantry and multiple freezers. I learned from the best. And it's a good thing: Just like my childhood home, our County Line home is 15 minutes away from a grocery store - or any restaurant offering either dine-in or carry-out options.

After last week, our cattle's "pantry" is again full, too. 

Harvesting silage is a different kind of harvest around here.

For one thing, it was all over and done with in about 4 hours. That's my kind of harvest. There's not the two weeks of wheat harvest angst with uncooperative weather and interminable breakdowns.

We hired Williamson Harvesting, St. John, to bring their silage cutter and trucks to cut 30 acres of silage.

For years, Randy's family and a neighbor family - the Hornbakers - did the job themselves. (I looked for photos, but I didn't find any.) When Randy was young, they had a one-row, pull-type silage cutter. Then they upgraded to a two-row, pull-type silage cutter. They each provided a tractor, one to pull the cutter and the other to use to pack the trench silo.

They each provided a truck to haul the cut silage from the field to the silo. And the wives provided a harvest meal for the four- to six-man crew. I seem to remember my mother-in-law talking about creamed peas being on the menu as a side dish. You'd think I'd retain knowledge of the favorite main dishes, but I didn't.

Randy says it took two days to get everything ready. It took a week to get both family's silage cut and in the silos. And then it took another two days to get everything cleaned up. 

Just like other farm tasks, the methods and the machinery have evolved during Randy's lifetime. We've hired the job done during our married life (and that's nearly 40 years now).

Hiring it done certainly simplifies things - though it does mean writing a check. There are tradeoffs to everything in life, I suppose.  

Silage cutting is another one of those choreographed farm "dances."

The silage feeds into the cutter and is chopped. An auger carries the chopped silage into the truck. 

 

All this happens "on the go," with the truck and the cutter continuing in sync through the field until they get to the end of the rows. They then move into position for the next swath down the field.

As they cut, another truck follows behind, ready to move into position when the first truck is full. By design, Randy plants the silage in fields fairly close to the silo so that it doesn't have to be trucked so far. This year, it was literally as close as possible, in the field just north of the silo.

 

Once the truck is full, the trucker takes it to the silo. 

The silage trucker backs into the trench silo, dumps his load and takes off for another load-on-the-go. 

 I give the truckers an A+ for their backing skills.

Between trucks, the tractor driver packs the silage into our own "Green Mountain." 

We grow the silage (also known as forage sorghum) for cattle feed. This particular variety is dual purpose: It has both grain and forage (or roughage), both of which are important to the cattle's diets as TDN - total digestible nutrients.

Once in the silo, the silage goes through an "ensiling" process. The silage goes through chemical changes and heat builds up. It raises the pH of the silage so that it doesn't spoil or ferment any more. About the top 6 inches of it will rot, but then it forms an airtight seal, protecting the silage underneath.

After we bring the cows and calves off the summer pastures, we'll start feeding the silage to the cattle. The mama cows will get the silage as is. For the feeder calves, we add about 3 to 4 pounds of vitamin- and mineral-enriched grain per head, since they need the additional energy to grow to get ready for market.

I'll be back in the feed truck this winter, helping Randy care for our feeder calves and mamas.

 

Last year, we didn't have enough silage to fill the trench silo. We sold feeder calves earlier than normal because of the lack of homegrown feed.

This year's crop should keep the "pantry" full all winter.