Chop, Chop - It's Silage Time « Back

I’m not sure who is more excited when it’s time to chop corn to make into silage to feed our beloved Jersey cows — Tyler and Cassie, or the grown men! The process begins midsummer when my father-in-law pulls the green chopper out of the shop and checks to make sure it will be up and running when the corn is ready.
 
Next, is lining up the crew of men to haul wagons; our bagger-man, Marvin, fills the silage into plastic 250-foot bags to store the silage; my husband runs the chopper, and of course the menu of what we are going to feed the work crew. I better not forget my children, who spend countless hours debating who gets to haul wagons and help chop the corn.

Once the self-propelled chopper engine roars, it’s a sunrise-to-after-sunset job, day-after-day, to finish chopping 500 loads. This is equal to 5,000 tons of silage which will be used to feed our 350 Jerseys for the next calendar year.

Of course, this crucial job is done on top of the daily chores of milking, feeding and tending to our herd of Jerseys. It makes for very long hours, more than I will report. The crew doesn’t complain; the smell of fresh, chopped silage and scenery of wagons moving up and down the fields puts smiles on their faces. It’s an overwhelming feeling to look out at the fields where corn once stood and think how hard our crew worked to get this job accomplished. It’s amazing how continuous hard work of plowing the fields, planting the corn and mother nature’s work-of-art, allows us to provide food for our cows, that in return feed us.

My husband sleeps well after the chopping process is done (as does the entire crew), and he begins to think of the next project that must be done — planting rye for next spring’s harvest.