Harvest 2016

A harvest post in December you ask? 
Yes.  A harvest post in December. 
This fall was BEAUTIFUL.  The weather was awesome.  Once harvest began, we didn’t stop.  As great as that sounds now, it was rather challenging to keep up with. 
Here are some highlights:

• Chopped earlage on 9/8 (which is now being used for our cattle feed)
• Soybean harvest started on 9/27 and ended on 10/11 (we did a few days of corn in there, too)
• Corn harvest went from 10/12 to 10/24
• Drilled cover crops from 9/21 – 10/29
• Baled cornstalk bales (to be used as bedding and feed for cattle)
• Spread cattle and pig manure (fertilizer!!)
• Moved cattle from the pasture to cornstalks

We finished up early compared to the past 3 years of harvest:

• 2016: 9/27-10/24
• 2015: 9/26-11/04
• 2014: 9/29-11/08
• 2013: 9/27-11/03

My role was a lot different this year.  In the past, I’ve mostly helped in the office.  This year I did cattle chores every morning, drilled cover crops, baled cornstalk bales, and tried to keep up in the office.  I’m way more involved, and I’m happy to say I’m still (somewhat) sane! 

A selfie with the family!

Some of the almost 500 cornstalk bales

Drilling cover crops.  This was my view a lot this fall

              

The combine :)

The cattle came from the pasture onto cornstalks and cover crop

Earlage Chopping Highlights

We chopped earlage last week (9/8) and it went really well. 

Normally when you harvest corn you just harvest the corn: the cobs, husks, and stalks are thrown out the back of the combine. Earlage you harvest the corn, husk, and cob (we use for cattle feed). Silage you harvest the majority of the plant: corn, cob, husk, and stalk (for feed, also).

The decision to feed earlage for our cattle is basically for the ration we feed to the cattle. Earlage has more roughage than straight corn, but less roughage than silage. So, if we feed corn we'd need to add more roughage (like hay), and if we feed silage we'd need to feed more corn to balance out the ration needed. Earlage is an in-between and works for our rations and feed options.

Here are some of the "highlights" from the day as taken through Snapchat.  I didn't get the end of the day because I ran out of battery!

I was in charge of a wagon like the one ahead of me.