Chop that Corn!!

Although it was a touch-and-go growing season, Weldon's corn crop did amazingly well this year. When it reached its optimum potential and was ripe for the reaping, the rains came ... and came ... and came. By the time the skies cleared and the ground was dry enough to support the machinery, the leaves had developed an unsightly blight. But Weldon said the corn and stalks were still full of moisture and the browning leaves wouldn't hurt the cows.

In past years I've blogged about harvesting the corn, but today I'm going at it from a different perspective. Like so many things in life, the actual doing of a job is preceded by lots of other jobs in preparation for the real job, so that's what the photos below depict: getting ready to chop the corn. I'll give you the short and sweet version.

Short and sweet. Get it?
Just a little humor :-)

Wagons, ready!

Tractors, ready!

Chopper, ready!

Silo, almost ...

Silo, ready!

Blower, ready!
















Preparatory work, done! Within two weeks, silage chopped!

Heart-felt thanks go out to the guys who helped Weldon: Alton, a long-time friend; and Jamie, a first-time visitor to the farm who offered his help & was immediately recruited :-)

You can see more pictures and read some of my previous posts about cutting the corn and hauling it to the silos by clicking on the links.

Finally, check out the exciting video footage of filling a silo in 2009. Can you believe it: they are still doing it the same way this year!

Life on a dairy farm. It's like nothing else. And that's all I'm going to say about it!