New and old silage pile (pics)

[Old560]

Seven tractors packing the new silage. One front in loader with a rake pulling down old silage pile. On a dairy with I’m told 5000 head. I pulled over to take some pictures and get the aromatherapy.

 

[Alvin 41]

Seven tractors packing the new silage. One front in loader with a rake pulling down old silage pile. On a dairy with I’m told 5000 head. I pulled over to take some pictures and get the aromatherapy.

Nice pictures, Most finished that a week ago here in SWI. Takes a lot of packers to
keep up with 1-2 choppers.

 

[plattman]

so they cover the old silage with the fresh chop?

 

[Old560]

so they cover the old silage with the fresh chop?

It’s two separate piles next to each other old pile and the new pile.

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

Wow! Those are mountains!!

Mike

 

[caterpillar guy]

About the only way to get enough in the time frame of chopping and have a place to put it in a volume they use.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Wow! Those are mountains!!

Mike

The cows are going to make a lot of Natural gas out of that silage.
A mega dairy in N Indiana makes enough methane (natural gas) for the dairy and a small town.

 

[showcrop]

The piece of equipment on the wheel loader is called a "facer". It is like a rototiller. It pulls the needed silage down and leaves a minimal amount of surface exposed to the air reducing spoilage.

 

[paul]

When I was a little kid that would have been 100 dairy farms.

Times change and everything naturally grows larger, but think about the effects on the town economy, etc. Pretty rapid change.

I guess I just barely remember the corner grocery stores in town too, think there were 7. Now we have 2 large, plus an Aldi and of course a Walmart. Everything changes.

Paul

 

[SweetFeet]

Seven tractors packing the new silage. One front in loader with a rake pulling down old silage pile. On a dairy with I’m told 5000 head. I pulled over to take some pictures and get the aromatherapy.

I agree!! Huge amount of silage.

Wow! Those are mountains!!

Mike

 

[DoubleO7]

The piece of equipment on the wheel loader is called a "facer". It is like a rototiller. It pulls the needed silage down and leaves a minimal amount of surface exposed to the air reducing spoilage.

Do they "face off" the surface and dispose of it before giving the cows the unspoiled silage underneath?

 

[showcrop]

Do they "face off" the surface and dispose of it before giving the cows the unspoiled silage underneath?

No, after facing they set the facer down then load their mixer wagons with what they just pulled down. Piles and feed bunks are sized according to daily usage such that the exposed face is exposed for a limited time, so that it doesn't spoil.

 

[Bruce from Can.]

When I was a little kid that would have been 100 dairy farms.

Times change and everything naturally grows larger, but think about the effects on the town economy, etc. Pretty rapid change.

I guess I just barely remember the corner grocery stores in town too, think there were 7. Now we have 2 large, plus an Aldi and of course a Walmart. Everything changes.

Paul

I agree, it would have been about 100 farms. And 100 farm families, all making a decent living. And each of those farms needed a couple tractors, a baler, a manure spreader and so on. Local equipment dealers also had mechanics and truck drivers and sales staff, so it created more local jobs all the way around. I think it was a better model than we have today.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

I agree, it would have been about 100 farms. And 100 farm families, all making a decent living. And each of those farms needed a couple tractors, a baler, a manure spreader and so on. Local equipment dealers also had mechanics and truck drivers and sales staff, so it created more local jobs all the way around. I think it was a better model than we have today.

I heard small farmers had it better in Canada back in the day. Here in the states you weren't making a decent living on <50 head. You were living in poverty. That's why small dairies are all but extinct.

 

[marloweg]

I agree, it would have been about 100 farms. And 100 farm families, all making a decent living. And each of those farms needed a couple tractors, a baler, a manure spreader and so on. Local equipment dealers also had mechanics and truck drivers and sales staff, so it created more local jobs all the way around. I think it was a better model than we have today.

and if them farms with 100 cow could have made a living with 100 cows and 200 acers they would still be farming but cost out did income so they had to go to town for a job