Breaks

Kris spent all day snapping corn again.

Using the bagger isn't as fast as building a pile. They have to move the bagger to place the bags in different spots. (The bags have to be in a place where you can get the feed to the cattle easily, and once they're created, they're not moving anywhere. Too big!)

With that and tying the bags, it forces a lot of breaks in the action. So the entire snapping process is slowed.

On the plus side, it's really good corn and there's a lot of it. Also, since it's in sealed bags, we can preserve it longer. So the tedium and slowness are worth it!

My mom Cherie Anderson took this picture from my yard this weekend. We were at a wedding up north, enjoying the 80 degree weather. So no, Kris isn't harvesting every minute. Some breaks are more welcome than others.

Farm Bureau

I'm now a contributing author on the American Farm Bureau site. My first post for them is here: Terms.

Bag it

We had so much silage that we didn't have room on the concrete pad for a corn pile. We decided it'd be a good year to try out a bagger.

It works like this - Kris snaps the corn with a modified combine head on the chopper. It takes the cobs of corn and grinds them up, so that the cattle can easily digest it. (It's really soft and warm. We played in it a little bit.) After it's ground up it's called snaplage. It was called this long before Snapple.

The dump wagon unloads the snaplage on the ground. We use the skid steer to deposit it onto the conveyor, which moves the snaplage into the bagger.

It moves through an auger that pushes the snaplage into the bag. As the bag fills, the entire bagger machine moves slowly forward on its little wheels.

The bag looks like a giant slug, slowing growing in our barn yard. Full of yummy corn that the cattle will eat all winter long.

As I was watching this, Mike told me I should climb on the platform and look down into the machine. I did ... and saw why he wanted me to.

He said, "Doesn't it look like something from a James Bond movie?"

Yes. Feed storage that could double as a movie star.

Cleaning

You're familiar with a pitchfork. They symbolize farms. There's the famous painting of the pitchfork-holding farmer and his stern wife.

In the old calf barn, when you wanted to completely clean out the bedded pack (straw) of the calf pens, you had to use a pitchfork. Shovels don't work for picking up straw, and the skid steer didn't fit in all the spaces.

Three times a week we add to the bedding, but today we wanted to completely clean it out. (We do this on a schedule too.) In the new barn today, we were able to move the calves to one side and swing the gates closed. Then we were able to take the skid steer into the barn and use that to scoop and scrape the barn clean.

It may not be what paintings are made of, but it sure makes it easier to clean a barn.

Future

It seems to me like it's slowing down because there aren't calves being born all day, but it's just as busy as ever. To give you a snapshot, besides the regular chores that go on, today:

- Kris met with a seed salesman/custom field work guy about buying corn seed for next year and working a field down with a tool we don't have

- He chopped half a load of corn to feed the cows

- The milk pump wasn't working right, so the dealership had to come and fix it

- The skid steer wasn't working correctly either, so we changed the fuel filter and it seems better

- We hauled a bunch of pen manure out onto field that has been chopped

- Kris bought some calf feed

I hadn't seen a bag of calf feed before, and I don't know why I was surprised that it looks just like cat or dog food.

The marketing side of me loves everything about this - the images, the simple packaging, and of course, the name: Future Cow.

Wouldn't that be a great baby food name? Forget Gerber. Future Adult!

You can tell it's autumn

The sky is bright blue, the corn is getting ready, and the air is crisp. There was a light frost on the ground this morning. It was 35 degrees when I got up, but it warmed up to almost 60 this afternoon. All in all, a perfect fall day.



What goes with fall? Closing the curtains. This is what the barn looks like with them closed, to keep in the calves' body heat.



I'd say the curtains are going to stay closed for the season, but it's supposed to be in the 70s later this week. Good thing they're easy to move!

Selling

We can't keep all of our calves. This year we kept 123 heifers, but the cows birthed about 150. So what do we do with our extra calves? We sell them. There are always people who want to raise calves, especially from a healthy herd.

This year we've sold them to a few different people. Who buys our calves?

- People who like to raise them as a hobby, in hopes of making money.

Some people we sell to raise just a few, and sell them when they're larger and they can get more money for them.

- People who want to add to their herd.

Other dairy farms can increase their herd number by adding heifers from us.

- People who have the land to do it.

One of our employees just bought quite a few from us because he had available land to pasture them on. He can then sell them later.

Who says goodbye to them?

Kids who have seen lots and lots of calves, yet never get tired of going to see them. Here are the boys seeing off the latest newborn bull/heifer twins.



The twins looking at the twins