Son #2 chopping the end rows.
As I sit here writing I can hear the rumble of the tractors as they are heading out to haul corn. The chink clink of the hitches on the wagons hooking to the tractors ring in the foggy air.
This blower is basically an auger that feeds the corn/hay into a huge fan blade that blows it up into the top of the silos through a metal tube.
In the distance another tractor is reving up and the blower is tested. The blast of noise from the huge blower blades drowned out the other tractors. A few minutes after the blower is turned off, the chopper springs to life and whines down the driveway, out onto the road with the thunk clunk of the wagon behind it. It’s “get it in gear” time around here.
Wagons waiting to be filled.
How do you know when it’s time to cut corn? Well, here is the mid-level range of techy talk about corn cutting.
The moisture of the corn silage needs to be about 65% to put into the upright silos. That moisture is the best level for the corn to ferment and be stored for the maximum quality for feed. If the corn is too wet the weight of the full silo full will compress the corn and there will be seepage. This is not what you want – nasty smelly.
The goal of chopping a crop and storing it in a bag, bunker or silo is to have it ferment. Fermentation = preservation. Oxygen is the enemy of fermentation. If feed isn’t fermented it will spoil.
So, how do you test it? This is how we do it. We will chop a little of the corn – the whole stalk including the ear. We weigh out 100 grams of the chopped material and put it into a Koster Moisture Tester. It looks like a sieve with a heating element and a fan. Hot air is forced up through the sample until it appears dry, approximately 1.5 hours. Then the sample is weighed to determine its dry weight (the sample with the moisture cooked off). After recording the dry weight the sample is put back in the tester for approximately 15 minutes. The weighing process is repeated to determine if the weight has changed. If the weight has changed it means the sample was not dry the first time. If it changed, you need to repeat the drying process until the sample weighs the same two times in a row. That way you know it is totally dry and no futher time is needed in the tester.
When the sample is determined to be dry, take the dry sample weight and subtract it from the original 100 grams. (100 grams wet weight – 35 grams dry weight = 65 grams of water.) This means the moisture content of the crop is 65%. If it is more than 65% you need to leave the corn in the field to mature longer. If the moisture is less than 65% , that means you should have been harvesting earlier. That also means the feed is lighter weight and will not pack as tight which will allow more air into the silage. This could lead to poor fermentation. For us, we would then put that crop into our Harvestore silos, which are designed to limit oxygen from reaching the feed. If you can keep air out, fermentation will be more complete with less spoilage.
5 - 20X80 foot 1 - 25X90 foot Harvestores and a 24X70 cement silo.
This year we will chop 300 to 400 acres of corn which will fill 4 - 20X 60 silos, 1 - 18X 55, 2 – 20X80, 1 - 24X70, 1 – 25X90, 1 - 25X110 and 6 - 12X300 foot ag bags.
Ag bag.
Hopefully, this will feed our animals until next harvest.
While all of the corn business is going on we are also making hay. This is fourth cutting hay. We have 300 acres to mow, chop and blow into silos.
Chopper with hay head on chopping hay. This is the same machine we use to chop corn, with a different cutting head.
Things are getting a bit testy around here. The corn is drying (maturing) faster than we are ready for it. So, while we are making hay, we are concerned about the corn waiting for us.
The good Lord has blessed us with wonderful weather to be able to keep at it.
Long hours and all hands on deck are expected for the next three weeks. After that, it will be time to get out the combine and shell corn, but, that’s a story that will have to wait until later.
