Time to quit chopping

rrlund · Oct 10, 2014

I usually figure the bunker is full with about 70 loads. I put some bales out front and packed 90 in this time. There are about ten loads left to chop,but I've been chopping a load in the front unloader every three days or so and running it on the ground in the pastures. I'll just finish it up that way. The boys are coming Sunday to help get the plastic on it.

showcrop · Oct 10, 2014

I am glad to see that you are staying safe. One year my friend had a lot to put in and he stacked it about twenty feet over the sides. I told him that he was nuts. No way I would have been up there.

rrlund · Oct 10, 2014

I'm always afraid of it breaking loose and slipping sideways. Just backing down off of it can be kind of puckering sometimes.

Bruce from Can. · Oct 10, 2014

Congrats on another successful harvest. And I know what you mean about that backing down bit.Bruce

Mike (WA) · Oct 10, 2014

Sure a nice feeling to have plenty of feed for the winter, though. Too bad you couldn't have put up about 150 loads, then bought more cattle at $2.50 a lb. to feed it to, then sell them when the price crashes. LOL

I got some hay one time from a guy who seemed kind of sour. Turns out he had bought this place the year before, bought feeders in the spring and pastured them, then sold them in the fall. "I only made $10 on them". I said "10 bucks apiece? Well, that's sure not great, but how many did you have"? "No, not 10 bucks apiece- just 10 dollars, period." So I come back with one of my dad's lines- "Well, at least you had the use of the cattle."

I think if he'd been holding a hay hook I wouldn't be here to relate the story.

rrlund · Oct 10, 2014

Sounds like a friend of my dad who said "Last time I had a barn full of cattle,all I got out of it was a barn full of chit". lol

donjr · Oct 10, 2014

What are your walls made of, Randy?

Joe Blackeby · Oct 10, 2014

U done good Mr. Rrlund. Bravo!

rrlund · Oct 10, 2014

Concrete. I had them poured like a poured wall basement. They used a concrete pumping truck to get it up in to the forms.

Alan K · Oct 10, 2014

I know what you mean there. At ground level a pile doesnt look that high but when your up there, its a different story.

teddy52food · Oct 10, 2014

Did anyone ever try putting a bunch of oats on the pile & watering it down so it sprouts? I think it would seal it just like plastic.

casenut1 · Oct 10, 2014

Yea, but a barn full of chit is worth something in the spring.

rrlund · Oct 11, 2014

Some used to use rye,but MSU research shows that if it isn't sealed with plastic,even though it looks like there are only a few inches of spoilage,there is absolutely no feed value what so ever in the top 3 feet.

Lazy WP · Oct 11, 2014

I would say that is pure BS, in our part of the world. We never covered a silage pile, and always had great feed, but it was also packed tight enough you could drive a 2 wheel drive pickup up it.

rrlund · Oct 11, 2014

I'm not a college professor,I'm just telling what their research says.

showcrop · Oct 11, 2014

(quoted from post at 08:08:59 10/11/14) I would say that is pure BS, in our part of the world. We never covered a silage pile, and always had great feed, but it was also packed tight enough you could drive a 2 wheel drive pickup up it.

My cousin milks two hundred in northern Vermont. He is pretty careful about his feed. Once when I was there he was preparing to add corn on top of grass that he had put in two months earlier. There was only about three inches of spoilage on the top, but we forked it all off. If you have four inches on top of a face that is twenty feet high it would be insignificant feeding beef but for milkers the ration is balanced too tightly to mix it in and still get the production you need to get a decent paycheck.

showcrop · Oct 11, 2014

(quoted from post at 08:08:59 10/11/14) I would say that is pure BS, in our part of the world. We never covered a silage pile, and always had great feed, but it was also packed tight enough you could drive a 2 wheel drive pickup up it.

My cousin milks two hundred in northern Vermont. He is pretty careful about his feed. Once when I was there he was preparing to add corn on top of grass that he had put in two months earlier. There was only about three inches of spoilage on the top, but we forked it all off. If you have four inches on top of a face that is twenty feet high it would be insignificant feeding beef but for milkers the ration is balanced too tightly to mix it in and still get the production you need to get a decent paycheck.

Cas · Oct 12, 2014

Abolutely every large farmer in our area puts plastic over every bunk. Many of these guys did not some years ago. They can not all be stupid. Their production per cow average is very impressive.

Time to quit chopping

rrlund

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showcrop

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rrlund

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Bruce from Can.

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Mike (WA)

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rrlund

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donjr

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Joe Blackeby

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rrlund

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Alan K

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teddy52food

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casenut1

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rrlund

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Lazy WP

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rrlund

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showcrop

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showcrop

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Cas

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