Alfalfa - the process!

A beautiful field of aflalfa

My mom Cherie Anderson wrote this on her Facebook page, and since she described it so well, I'm going to use it here! She also took all the pictures. Even though I grew up here, I didn't really pay attention until we started farming here ourselves. Growing and harvesting alfalfa to feed our cattle is a summer-long process with rewarding results! 

~

It’s haying time in Michigan. Everyone knows what hay is, but maybe not everyone knows the process. This is a field of alfalfa. Alfalfa is planted in late summer or early fall to use the following spring. It’s a high protein food for cattle. It’s a legume and has deep roots. A field will be good for three to five years, or even longer, depending on the weather and soil. 

When the alfalfa is at the right maturity and there’s no rain imminent, the farmer mows it and the machine lays it in rows. Then a rake or merger will put those rows together into larger swaths, or windrows. Then a chopper will scoop up those rows, cutting the alfalfa into smaller pieces and shooting it into a wagon or truck which is driving alongside. It’s trucked to a cement pad, dumped out, and another tractor pushes it into a pile and drives over it, compacting the pile. When it’s all done, the pile is covered with plastic. The alfalfa ferments, does not rot or spoil, and makes nutritious, delicious feed for cows for later on. It’s called haylage. 

You can also bale alfalfa into round or square bales. In that case, it has to be much drier than chopped alfalfa. You can’t bale wet hay. It can actually spontaneously combust, as crazy as that sounds. 

Alfalfa is mixed with corn sileage and other feeds and fed to cattle. Hay for horses is generally not purely alfalfa - it is either grass hay or a mixture of alfalfa and grass. Alfalfa is harder for horses to digest. They only have one stomach, unlike a cow which has four. 

The last picture shows the field when all the chopping is done. The cool thing is that the alfalfa will grow back and the farmer can get three, sometimes four, cuttings every summer!  Of course, at that point you WANT rain, unlike when you’ve got hay on the ground. 

Oh, and it smells wonderful when it’s freshly cut!

Alfalfa close up

Cut

Merged

Chopper chopping it

Dumping onto feed pile

Tractor driving on continually to form file and compress it 

The alfalfa field afterward

Ready to grow...in just 28ish days we do it again!

On the farm

Jon Adamy from Michigan Farm Bureau worked with Samana Sheikh at WLNS to do some 'On the Farm' segments about dairy farming. You can watch the videos here.

It's been a whirlwind of a month! My brother, sister, and their families came, my cousin, his wife, and their three kids visited, we camped and canoed, we had people over for pool parties and wiffle ball, we did our third cutting of alfalfa, and Kris' sister, her husband and kids are coming today! 

(We also had two family reunions. My brother Gage and I won the Anderson cornhole tournament, and Kris and I won the Wardin cornhole tournament! These are my greatest athletic achievements.)

On the farm, it's busy all the time. Calves everywhere, things breaking and getting them fixed, getting bulls from other farms, milking, chopping alfalfa, and making sure everything is getting covered, from machine maintenance to calf care and everything in between.

We were fortunate that our team member Dave and his wife Lisa sold us my grandparents' house back, so now our other team members could move closer. 

I'm also working full time now, from home most days but also going into the office, and it's been going great. I'm a marketing communications specialist (which means writer) at an ag lending co-op. It's wonderful being able to combine my love of writing with my love of agriculture!

I hope your August is going well, too. The cicadas and crickets are loud at night, there's a chill in the night air, and I'll be wearing a winter coat before I know it. But until then ... it's swimming every day until school starts!

And last but not least ... my Uncle Stuart took this video, my cousin Marilyn Cotton had it digitized, and my cousin Pat Fitzpatrick put it on YouTube. It is precious to me. It shows my great-great grandma in my house, my great-grandparents having fun, my grandparents young, my aunts and uncles, and my dad as a baby! 

But...what might be interesting to you is the vintage farming footage! How did they not lose all their limbs and fingers? Go to 8:45 and check out my great-grandpa and grandpa farming. My great-grandpa is the one with the horses and my grandpa is the guy laughing. My Uncle Dave is the little boy on the wagon.  

Watch it here.

What a weekend

On Friday we were supposed to go to our friends' house for fireworks with a bunch of other friends. I was talking to them in the morning and said we were going to go, but I didn't know what time we'd be there because we had to cover the pile of alfalfa we were chopping that day.

I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but six families came to help us cover the pile! 

Of course, it's impossible to time when it's going to happen, so we thought it was going to be 5:00 p.m., but then the chopper had some trouble, so then it was 6:00 p.m. ... so my parents went and picked up the pizza and we ate at our house BEFORE covering the pile - and the kids swam - and then finally it was time! 

With all of our wonderful friends helping, it took 27 minutes to cover it, and then we all went for fireworks. What a great night! 

(I think they are still our friends.) 

Also ...

Kris high on the 4th of July!

Also knee high by the 4th of July!

Field one - planted April 28. 

Field two - planted June 4 after we cut alfalfa off of it.   

I hope you're having a great July!

One of my favorite sights

Ah ... for the first time this year, the cows are out in the pasture.  There are the 'dry' cows - meaning the cows that we aren't milking because they're two months or closer to having calves.

We planted alfalfa last Tuesday - and thanks to some lovely rain, it's already up!  (One week and one day, which seems amazing.)  My sister Tracy was telling me how excited she was that her grass she planted in her lawn poked up; this is the same excitement farmers feel EVERY YEAR when their crops emerge from the ground.

Can you see them?

We hauled a lot of manure.  We have a lagoon of manure and we need to use it to fertilize our fields. We also take manure samples and send it to a lab where they analyze the nutrients.  Then we can tell how much supplemental fertilizer we need to put on our fields.

This looks like a job for Captain America

Gloves seem like a good idea

Every day is take your kid to work day

I also did an event with CommonGround, the volunteer organization that communicates with people about farming.  (Check out their site if you have any questions - it's great.)  Tera Havard, Barbara Siemen and I talked to Michigan dietitians and nutritionists about farming and food.  People asked about GMOs, local issues, raw milk - but mostly how they get the real information to their patients and clients.  We also had a lot of tour requests from schools, so that was great!

                                     

Kris is headed to our co-op's advisory board meeting tomorrow, we have a community action group meeting for Farm Bureau ... and then we'll start planting corn next week.  The calving will begin, and we'll start the busy season all over again.

And the whole time we'll enjoy the beautiful view of our cows on pasture.  The boys are a nice addition, too.

Want to know more about the farm?  Like the page on Facebook, on Twitter @carlashelley, or sign up to get the blog by email - the form is on the right side of the page.

Summertime

We cut the alfalfa, and since then it's been overcast and cold.  This is not the weather you need to dry your hay.  The sun just came out this afternoon ... and it was a mad rush!  All at once, the farmers in the area got out and started chopping.  There was farm rush hour on our road!

Why can't you chop wet alfalfa?  Because it would get all gummed up in the machinery and not be the best quality feed for the cattle.  You try to harvest it at the right combination of moisture and yield.  This cutting, the weather is not fully cooperating.  When it dried today finally ... it was really dry!  Tomorrow will be another full day of chopping.

In other farm news, we have 44 calves out on pasture now, as we're filling up the barn with all the newborns.

And with the end of summer and vacations, scheduling is crazy for Kris and everyone.  We are so fortunate to have our great team members.

***

Today a crew came out to shoot a video about fresh food availability in Michigan, and they wanted a farming perspective.

It's always interesting talking to people about their jobs - they liked asking about our farm, and I liked asking about video production!  

They took some video of the boys, and I'm sure there won't be audio.  If there were, it would have captured this conversation - Cole and Ty want the same calf to show in 4-H.  After much negotiation, Cole traded Ty two of his toys for her.  They really have the bartering system down pat.

The people were delightful and had lots of questions about the farm.  (One I got twice was - what happens to cows when they don't give any more milk?  Answer - we sell them for meat, so they get eaten typically as hamburger.)

When they were leaving, Karen said, "I want to live on a farm!"  Matt said that his son would be torn - he loved tractors, but he hates the smell.  If only they'd been here later, when the air was full of the sweet, delicious smell of fresh-cut alfalfa.  It makes up for the manure!

My boys, on the other hand, are incredibly used to being on the farm.  So today we took a different tour - at TechSmith, where I used to work!  My friend Jim showed them around the office and they were duly impressed.

I asked if they wanted to work in an office, and Cole said yes, but in a skyscraper.  Ty said he wanted to work outside.  I said you don't have to choose just one - you can pick both.

As soon as Kris started chopping at home, they begged to go with him.

More chopping, more farming, more public relations tomorrow!  Let's hope for dry weather and good smells.

If you want to know more, you can like my farm page on Facebook, follow @carlashelley on twitter, or get the posts sent to your email by filling out the form on the right. If you have any questions, please email carla.wardin@gmail.com!

First cutting - done!

Yesterday Kris left the house at 4:00 a.m. to help dry up the cows, move cattle, work on a fence, and chop.  He chopped all day until he came home at 9:30 p.m..  We told each other about our days and he went to bed at 10:00 p.m.

I went to the airport to pick up his sister and husband (Meghan and Jon) at 11:30 p.m.  We stayed up talking until 1:00 a.m.  I said, "I'd better go to bed."  Jon said, "We could just wait up for Kris ... he'll be leaving in three hours!"

Yes!  Today Kris left the house at 4:00 a.m. again, fed and chopped until 9:30 a.m. when he came home to see Meghan and Jon.  At this point I convinced him that he should help me open the pool, but it was ONLY ten minutes of physical labor.  He left at 11:00 a.m. to chop again.  They finished chopping at 8:00 p.m. and they're covering the pile of first cutting alfalfa with tires and plastic. They'll all eat pizza together and come home about 10:30 p.m.

When I said Kris' schedule to a friend, she said something like, "Poor guy," and I was surprised and felt I had to explain.  Kris likes the busy season!

He likes when the harvest goes well, when the weather cooperates, when the machinery works, and when it all comes together nicely.  He finds it very satisfying to look at a giant pile of alfalfa and grass that was harvested at just the right time and under the right conditions.  It's always satisfying to put up feed that you know will be ready for your cattle in the winter.

So ... yes, he needs sleep, but he doesn't complain.  He'll even help take off your pool cover if you ask nicely enough.

If you want to know more, you can like my farm page on Facebook, follow @carlashelley on twitter, or get the posts sent to your email by filling out the form on the right. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me! 

Big smiles, big chopper

Our last chopper lasted longer than we thought it would, but it was time to get another one.  After weeks of shopping around, phone calls, negotiating, and trading ... it came today!

A chopper is a machine that harvests crops.  It takes giant cornstalks and chops them into tiny little pieces to feed the cattle.  So powerful!  We also chop alfalfa and other grasses with it (also to feed the cattle).  You put different heads on it depending on the crop you're harvesting.

Kris said to me that last year, harvesting corn wasn't as much fun as it's supposed to be.  He said, "You're chopping through the fields of corn, you're putting up tons of feed - it's usually really fun!"  But last year, they kept having to stop early to work on the corn head, and there was the constant worry hanging over his head of more last-minute repairs being needed - besides the repairs we'd made earlier.

So this season, with a more reliable chopper, hopefully it'll be more fun for all the guys.  It's different, for sure, and a bigger size, so there will be lots to learn.

But at least one boy felt comfortable with it right away.

Want to know more about the farm?  Like the page on Facebook, on Twitter@carlashelley, or sign up to get the blog by email - the form is on the right side of the page.

Take a tour

We hosted a farm tour Monday and today.  It's such a beautiful time of year!  Blue sky, green grass, perfect temperature. 

 

We finished the alfalfa last night.  It all went well, except a hydraulic line did burst.  Mike blamed me for writing that nothing had gone wrong yet.  I should've known better!  The machinery is always listening ... and apparently has internet access.

 

Just a few weeks ago that the grass was so crunchy it hurt to walk barefoot on it. Now it's soft and growing fast again! The pasture is, of course, benefiting from this, too.  Irrigation is wonderful, but nothing beats real rain.

 

 

Look at that sky.  The barn sets it off nicely.  I'm only half-joking.  When we show the barn to people on tours I'm like a new homeowner.  Look at the features - the rafters, the waterers, the new tube fans!

 

Our dairy barn - now more ventilation, still a good parlor inside.

 

 

Speaking of grass, it's the time of year to plant some more.  But not just for cattle! Here's our farm's sixth generation watering the new grass below our centennial farm sign. 

 

What's more beautiful than a summer day?  To me, nothing.  But a close second?  Watching your kid do his first actual chore ... and seeming to enjoy it.  This grass is not going to go dry!

Picking and planting

There's a lot to do to rotate crops. We've been growing corn in this field for awhile, so we're changing it to alfalfa. Changing crops breaks up the bug cycle, changes the weeds, and is good for the soil makeup.

Kris and the guys cleared all the rocks in the field. He even used a wheel loader to get out some huge ones. The boys pointed out the giant hole to me today. (They'd helped him do it. How long until they can just do it themselves? We're counting down.)

I asked a friend who just returned to farming how his spring was going. He wrote, "It's really dry and we need rain. Doesn't that make me sound like a farmer? Ha."

That's exactly what I said when I looked at this field. Can't help the way you sound when your job depends on the weather!

But soon this ...

Will turn to this:

You know, provided we get enough rain - and everything else goes perfectly!

Cutting

The back window of our new tractor blew out today. A rock got kicked up and broke it. Kris said, "It's pretty common."

That doesn't seem like something that should be common. If the back window of my car blew out commonly, I'd be pretty annoyed. (Or not notice. There's a lot going on in my car, between the singing and group dances.)

It happened while Mike was cutting hay. That's what it's called anyway. There's a whole process for turning alfalfa into what the cows eat. Ready for the steps on making hay?

1. Planting alfalfa. It's a perennial, so you don't have to plant it every year like you do corn. You replant about every five years or when it gets scraggly.

2. Cutting. You use a discbine and cut it. It cuts it, then it gets squeezed through roller and lays it down in a row.

This is a discbine:



3. Raking. You use a rake, which is another implement you pull behind a tractor. You turn the hay over so that the bottom dries. You also pull two rows into one row so that you can chop twice as much at once.

4. Chopping. With the chopper, you chop the alfalfa that's lying on the ground and shoot it into wagons.

5. Putting it on the pile. We dump the chopped alfalfa from the wagons onto the cement pad and drive a tractor over the pile many times to compress it.

You harvest the alfalfa (do this whole process) three or four times a summer. The entire thing is very stressful and weather-dependent. Once it's cut, you don't want it to rain. If it rains, you have to wait until it dries. You don't want it to rain on the pile before you get done chopping it all ... etc.

With all the rain we've been having, we're due for a drought. I can't help but talk about the weather, even if it's cliche. It affects everyone's schedule around here ... not to mention mood. Even the tractor windows are feeling it.



Alfalfa field