There is no right way, but in the end, you must be in charge of your harvest. It’s your farm or feedlot’s feed quantity and quality on the line. You get one chance to get a whole year’s worth of feed right. You’ve spent the money to get it this far (or bought it for a pretty penny) so finish strong!
What are your realistic goals for silage harvest? And how will you meet them? The big picture is that we want more feed and less waste, especially when forage prices are so incredibly high. We want better nutrition, getting every penny of nutrient value out of those forages. We want to get through harvest with no accidents and create a safe environment for ourselves, our families, and everyone who works or lives on the farm or feedlot.
We have to start somewhere
Step one of harvest planning is evaluating how things turned out last year.
Going through the steps of harvest may seem elementary, especially if you’ve made silage for many years. But every harvest presents different challenges. Time spent thinking through harvest is never wasted.
Take a walk to the feed area. On the way, look at the condition of the cows, the feedbunks, the manure behind them. All are good indicators of forage quality.
At the feed pile:
How much inventory is left? Is the amount what you had planned? How much over or under are you? How much more or less feed will you need this year? What needs to be done to prepare the pad for this year?
How dense is the pile? Does it sag in the middle when you look straight on at the the face? Approach the pile from the side, and at a place where the pile is not over your head, check the density. Is the feed surface rock solid? How hard do you have to work to get a handful?
What’s the temperature? Cool and damp or hot and steamy?
How’s the chop length? Consistent throughout? What about kernel processing? What was the dry matter for the bulk of the pile? How high was the cutting? Is there field dirt in it?
As you fed out, how much spoilage was there in the top three feet? None? Black crust or wet rot? tobacco brown silage? Maybe a spot where birds or other animals made a hole in the plastic?
If you covered, did the plastic stay on, especially across the top near the feeding face? Did you use a reputable oxygen barrier?
Safety check: How high was the pile at its peak? Could you reach the top with your equipment to avoid cave-offs? Did you have any avalanche events?
Make some notes. How does ‘23 compare to previous years? Do you see a trend in things you do that make an optimal harvest? Where do you need to improve? Where will you go to find answers?
If you’re still in need of Sealpro Silage Barrier Film for this year’s silage or wet corn harvest, call Ron Kuber at 559-779-5961. Many sizes still available - it can be picked up or shipped immediately.
Twelve steps sounds like a lot. We’ll break them out in easier bits to chew on the next blogs.
Evaluate what you did last year.
Plan harvest goals with your nutritionist, forage consultant and decide what the feed "footprint” will look like.
Gather your team: family, employees, contracted crews.
Prepare equipment, storage pads, tires, gravel bags.
Order Sealpro, inoculant and any other spare parts and equipment you’ll need.
Safety train your family, employees, and notify the neighbors there may be more traffic and dust.
Set up your monitoring system for dry matter, kernel processing, chop length
Start!
Seal with bona fide oxygen barrier Sealpro products.
Evaluate and summarize how harvest went ASAP after finishing.
