Chopping Silage

We were busy at our place last week, chopping feed to last the cattle all winter.  It was a pretty long, uneventful week with relatively few hiccups.  The boys (and I) enjoyed spending so much time out with the men.  We brought lunch every day and Kenyon helped run the dozer with his dad.  It's crazy to think that this is his fourth time chopping feed.  The first time I brought him down to the silo he was just barely a month old.  Time flies.

The Pioneer Woman I am not.  My meals are hearty and filling but not much to look at.  That, and it's just impractical to transport and drink out of mason jars.  Let's get real.  We use water jugs.

Hour 3 of chopping feed.  It adds up pretty quickly...

Of course, he had to check all the nuts and bolts and make sure everything was kosher.

This is out in the corn field.  The cutter runs along, chopping feed and dumps the feed out of the tall spout into the bed of the truck. 

The truck driver dumps the feed into the silage pit...

...my husband smooths out the feed so it can then be packed down tight. 

Kenyon loves to ride the dozer with his dad. 

Back and forth, back and forth.  Packing silage.

Why pack down the feed, you ask?  The entire goal of storing silage for feed is to decrease the amount of oxygen (thus the repeated packing) and increase the acidity of the pile.  This increases levels of beneficial acids such as lactic acid.  This lactic acid in turn is then in turn transformed into a volatile fatty acid (VFA) and utilized by the animal.  (See?  My education was not a complete waste!)

Is your head spinning?  Here's the take home message: Packing silage helps ensure that you are providing the best feedstuffs for your animals.  Not packing your silage is the equivalent of purchasing a new vehicle but not filling the tires with air.  What the heck?  If you're going to do something, do it right so you get the full benefit out of it!