Snappy

We're snapping corn, which means we put a corn head on the chopper.  Instead of chopping up everything, like with the other head, this one snaps off the stalk and grinds up the cob into tiny little pieces.  It still gets some of the stalk, but this method concentrates on getting the corn on the cob, which has the most nutritional and caloric benefits for cows.

We then are putting the ground up corn into bags.  Why?  Because it's such a good corn harvest that we can't build our piles any higher!  So we have to devise other ways to store the harvest.

Here's a little of what it looks like:

Rows and rows to do - here's the view from the cab.

He pulls a wagon behind him.  The chopper shoots the feed into it.

One of our team members takes it to the barn, and Kris gets out of the chopper and hitches up the empty wagon.

We take it to the barn and use the rented bagger to get in into the plastic bag.  This requires dumping it, using a wheel loader to load it, then using the bagger.

Repeat until finished.  We've been snapping for two days now and hope to be done by Friday.  The weather and equipment have been cooperating, and it'll be a huge relief when it's done!  It'll be an especially huge relief to Kris because I've been really using the corn puns all month long.  I know it's corny, but shucks, I can't help it.

Here's a video of the action!


 Until next year!

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Harvest

We started chopping corn today!  Every time we chop corn I'm amazed at the machine that is the chopper.

It takes the ENTIRE corn stalk, ear and all, and turns it into confetti-sized pieces.  The pieces shoot into the wagon that a tractor is pulling.  (And it happens fast - much faster than I can mow wet grass!)

The person driving the tractor has to drive alongside the chopper at the exact right speed and distance.  When his wagon is full, he goes and dumps it on the pile, and another tractor and wagon takes his spot.

Everything has to go right ... all the machinery has to work.  The corn has to be the right moisture. Everyone driving has to pay close attention.  They use hand signals and cell phones to communicate. It's quite a process.  Today one of our team members pulled a wagon for the first time for us - and did a great job.

I rode along today, and I was impressed like every year.  I like to think of what my ancestors would think about this machinery.

One thing never changes, no matter the machines ... everyone is exhausted after a day of harvesting. Whether you're using horses or amazing machines - it's tiring!

I've been sharing a lot of little pictures and videos on Facebook - if you're interested you can like my page on Facebook, like this:

It's corn chopping time! Here's Kris and Max (age 4) discussing the harvest. : ) We chop the entire corn plant into...
Posted by Truth or Dairy on Thursday, September 10, 2015

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.

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Sidewalls sideways

This is the way the silage pad looked when it was being poured in early August:

 

 

This was it today, with 107 loads of chopped corn on it:

 

 

After three straight days of chopping, we're done until Monday.  The rest of the fields need to dry a little more.  So the guys covered the pile.  (It rained a little later to make everyone feel like it was worth it!)

 

It was such a jovial atmosphere.  Even though it's hard work, the guys were all laughing and talking and joking.  It was nice, plus my kids enjoyed it.

 

Kris purchased some sidewalls.  The benefits are: they weigh less.  They're easier to stack and get out of the way when they're not on the piles.  They don't fill with rainwater that gets really gross.  Cole calls it "tire juice" and later told me, "All the guys started calling it that too."

 

The cons: they cost money, unlike tires that people are always trying to get rid of.  But when you're moving them around a lot, sidewalls are at least a nice alternative. 

While I was there, Mike joked that covering the pile is a lot like Sisyphus, the king who had to forever roll a boulder up a hill.  But he was smiling when he said it ... so maybe throwing some sidewalls in the mix does help.

Not everyone there was working hard.  Some of them got downright comfortable.  Mired in tire juice and all.

Fantastic contraption

Choppers are amazing machines.

 

This chopper takes the entire, juicy, huge, green corn plant - cobs, stalk and all - and chops it finely into tiny digestible bits.  So small of bits that they can be blown into a wagon.  And it does it all really fast.

 

Just think about mowing a lawn - when the grass is wet it takes the mower a little bit of time to cut up the grass.  Sometimes it even stalls the mower if you're doing it too fast.  (That happens to other people, too, right?)

 

We started the corn harvest yesterday.  We're chopping all of the corn to feed to the cattle all year.  That means we don't just use the corn kernels - we use the entire plant. 

 

The boys and I went to ride with Kris in the field.  Here he is with the chopper and the wagon in back.  The chopper blows the chopped corn through that yellow tube into the wagon. 

 

 

 

Here's Kris.  Chopping takes a lot of concentration.  It's not like hitting cruise control and going on the highway.  You have to chop the hard-to-get-to parts first, then you have to coordinate with the people driving the wagons ... sometimes Kris chops with the wagon on the back, and sometimes he has guys drive a tractor alongside it with a wagon.  It goes faster that way, because as soon as one wagon is filled, another is ready - instead of unhooking a full wagon and hooking up an empty one.

 

When we were doing this yesterday, Kris strained to make a turn and said, "That new ditch sometimes catches me off guard.  Also ... I can't move my arms."  Yes, it was a tight fit for five people in a chopper! 

That was the end of our ride.  I guess 'arm mobility' is the reason there's only an extra seat for one.

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.

Tires, tires, and more tires

Today, Kris finished chopping the corn silage and covered the pile.



Big guys, big tires. Little guys, little tires.



We actually need more tires. Seems impossible, doesn't it?



I climbed up to the top for the first time. (Halfway up, I realized I really should have carried up a tire, not just a camera. I instructed my sons to carry twice as many to make up for it.) This is the view from above.