silage cutting pics

With our always growing herd of cows we are going to give a try to bagging silage. We spent part of the day saturday and untill noon sunday helping friend do theirs and then we moved here and they helped us and by dark sunday we had ours done also.


This is the chopper. It belongs to Randy Byers from west of Avon. He brings the chopper, bagger, 5 wagons, the chopper driver and he ran the bagger.


They tell me this is a small chopper but it looked pretty big. He cut 6 rows at a pretty good pace.


Once the fields were opened up we just drove along side and caught it all on the go.


This thing sure is mean looking and it looks expensive too!


This is the back end of the bag. Once get everything set up, just pull up and unload and it takes care of the rest.


This is a pretty good shot of the silage coming out of the wagon and going into the bagger. The only bad part is you have to keep pulling ahead and the bag fills and pushes the tractor forward.

https://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh87/billonthefarm/inbox2/DSCN3543.jpg?t=1283302615".
This is the pic of the set up at our friends. The 4630 runs the bagger nicely. They did 3 200 foot bags this year.

<img src="http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh87/billonthefarm/inbox2/DSCN3552.jpg?t=1283302798
This project takes alot of power and man power. We had 5 tractors in use, a man in everyone and a couple of helpers around not counting the guys with the chopper and bagger.


We were chopping in half mile rows right across the road from the barn lot. We only had to haul to the buildings in the background so we keep the chopper going all the time and really coverd some acres in a hurry.


It was a nice warm day so wrigley spent alot of time sitting in the tractor running the bagger while cliff ran the controls with occasional help from wrigley.
Now that the silage is made and we have things sqaured away, if it doesnt rain we will start picking corn tomorrow. 80% chance of rain so maybe we wont but if we do I will get some pictures of course.
bill

Always enjoy your pictures!! Wrigley looks like quite the character! I like how he is 'involved'! Greg

Very good pix ,... Man that has come a long way from the trench system I grew up with

awesome pictures. i just cant get enough of them.
you have a real nice operation. if you have time to answer i was wondering how much hp that chopper is?

I have lots of time, the dog is sleeping at my feet while I watch my cubbies lose badly to the pirates.
They told me it was just over 300hp and was a 2006 model, I believe. We went down and helped them move from Liverpool up here to Farmington. They were chopping earlage for that farmer and they had a 8 row Deere corn head on it for that. Looked pretty cool.
bill

Hands down, if given the option I would put it in a bag if I didn't have room in the silo. We've filled a few bags here &amp; there, some with corn, some with hay. The feed always comes out nice and there is little to no spoilage like there is with any kind of a pile or pit.

This year we probably won't fill one silo, much less both plus a 9'x200' bag like we did a few years ago.







Donovan from Wisconsin

Great pics got to love silage season. Looks like a job while done. A great way to store feed sure beats arguing with all that bale twine. First time i have seen it go in bags around here it is all done in pits or stacks

Just think how much fun we had in the early 50's. Only needed 4 tractors, Neighbors L Case in the pit silo, Neighbors 8N Ford and a B JD pulling the wagons(2). Dads new Gehl one row cutter with own engine and pulled by his WD Allis. I was a young kid and life was great.
PS Everybody brought there own silage forks.

In 1950 was the first year we had filled the silos having the silage cut in the field and hauled with trucks with dump beds. The chopper had its own engine and was pulled with a Farmall M. When we used the old silage cutter it took 3 weeks of long days to fill 2 silos. They filled both silos in 3 days. Hal

This is strictly from ignorance, but it seems strange that you have corn green enough for silage today, but corn dry enough to pick tomorrow. Guess I always assumed that grain corn harvest would be a month or two later than silage.

Great pics, as usual. I always enjoy your photos and commentary of how it works on a "real" farm. And of course, the last pic being of Wrigley has become your trademark.

Don"t know about that model, but the newest JD is 800 hp. Not because it"s needed, but that size is beyond current pollution standards. Lower hp engines would have to meet them. My son is a JD diesel tech, and since the dealer is a "FOCUS" dealer, he does service almost exclusively on the SP machines in MN, ND, SD. Some of his customers run two machines, and when one goes down, they get a replacement RIGHT NOW!.

Thanks for the pictures and keep them coming - looks like you have the harvest started LOT earlier than last year! Going to Manito this weekend and pretty sure will see combines running.

Questions Though,

1) Might be stupid, but how do you get silage outa the bags - keep ramming it with the loader?

2) Cub fan myself - think we're going to have wait TILL NEXT YEAR?

3) Looked at a "Farmalittle" H the daughter found and was on Higgs Road just west of Trivoli road. Prolly pretty close.

4) Where were the Travis boys at the Laura tractor pull???????????

Corn silage comes out really easy. Haylage is a bit tougher but even our beat up older Massey 165 can dig it out of the bag.

Donovan from Wisconsin