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Chopping Silage for Cattle Feed

October 3, 2014 By Sara

Chopping and Feeding Silage to our Cattle

It’s been somewhat busy on our farm lately.  We are gearing up for harvest to start within the next week or so, but in the meantime we recently had corn silage chopped on our farm.  We do this so we have additional feed for our cattle to eat besides just hay and grass throughout the year.

Chopping Silage

We had it custom chopped again this year since we do not own a forage harvester.

Chopping Silage for Cattle Feed

As I discussed last year, we don’t currently have a silage pit, so Kevin uses hay bales to pack the silage in between.

Dumping Silage in Pit

Once the forage harvester chops the wet corn, a tractor pulling a cart brings it to the “silage pit”.

Dumping Silage

He dumps it in a pile and then Kevin, with his assistant HD, takes his tractor and piles it up and packs it tight.

Packing Silage with Tractor

It needs to be packed nice and tight so it will form a crust-like top layer.  This will seal the corn in and cause it to ferment and turn into silage.

Packing Silage in Pit

This is what the freshly chopped corn looks like.  Looks delicious right?  The cattle think so!

Fresh Cut Silage

We still have some silage left from last year, which we are currently feeding to some of the heifers that we have behind our barn in the cattle lots.  While we were waiting for Kevin to fill up the feed wagon, Ax decided to play in some mud.  It is necessary for farmkids to bath every night, can you see why?

Farmkid playing in the mud

Kevin does a mixture of silage, ground cornstalks, and some whole corn from last year in the feed wagon.

Tractor and feed wagon

When he’s ready to drive into the lot, HD is in charge of opening the gates so Kevin can drive the tractor in.

Farmkid helping with chores

He’s getting to be a really good helper!

Farmkid helping with chores 2

The heifers know what’s coming!  They love the feed and are always eager to eat it every night.

Cattle waiting for feed

This night Ax got to ride in the tractor with his daddy to feed the cattle.

Daddy and farmkid in tractor

They are digging right in before Kevin’s even done filling the bunks!

Cattle eating silage mixed with hay

Yum!  Yum!  Yum!

Close-up of Cattle Eating Silage

After Kevin drives back out, HD has to make sure he closes the gate tight!

Chores are done-farmkid

So, that’s the scoop on silage and feeding the cattle.  They also have hay available to them right now and will be moved out onto cornstalks as soon as we get some fields harvested.  Here’s one last picture of Ax being goofy.  Not sure what he’s looking at or what he’s doing here.  You just never know with this kid!

Silly farmkid by tractor

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Leave a Comment · Filed Under: Agriculture, Cattle, Crops, Family Farms · Tagged With: Cattle Feed, Chopping Silage, Corn Silage, Family Farm

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