The Van Zante Family: Cows Shall Not Live on Corn Alone!

In the past, I've shared with you how we harvest hay and corn throughout the summer and fall for silage for use in our feed program. You can see the harvesting process for haylage here: http://joshuaamanda.blogspot.com/2011/06/its-most-wonderful-time-of-year.html and here: http://joshuaamanda.blogspot.com/2011/06/now-thats-some-hay-baby.html. Corn is done pretty well the same way, except it isn't mowed with the mower because the chopper, which is fitted with a corn head instead of the hay head, cuts it off at the ground. Well shucks, I'll just show you... take a look here: http://joshuaamanda.blogspot.com/2012/08/sparing-corn-crop.html. If you scroll down far enough, you'll see a picture of the tractor with the chopper and corn head. After the haylage and corn silage are harvested, they are stored in the silo, which you can see that process here: http://joshuaamanda.blogspot.com/2011/06/from-wagon-to-silo.html. I've mentioned a few times that I would someday explain how this feed is used; once its in a silo, how do we get it out and make it available as feed to the herd?

Guess what?! Today is the lucky day that I'm giving the explanation!

This is the silo: 80 foot tall, 20 feet wide, all concrete block and steel rod bands. There is the pipe on the outside of the silo (seen on the left here) that the silage is blown up so that it can fall back in the silo for storage (click on the last link above to see how this is done). The silo is basically a hollow cylinder... until it is filled, at which time it is a filled cylinder. Inside the silo is a mechanism called a 'silo unloader'. The unloader is circular to fit snug against the inside walls of the silo and also has an electric motor that causes it to rotate and run paddles on a fan propeller. It also has an auger. The auger moves silage to the center of the unloader into the fan propeller. The fan propeller blows the silage out through "doors". Notice on the opposite side of the pipe is an oblong extension of the silo (on the right side in this picture). This oblong extension is a passageway that serves two purposes. The first purpose is that it is fitted with doors that are approximately two foot square. The doors are the openings that the paddles eventually blow the silage out of as it is augered around the top of the silage inside. The silage then falls out the door and down the chute to a conveyor below. The second purpose is that it contains a ladder for a way up the silo for either repairs or to "change doors". As the silage is used and the level gets lower and lower, the farmer has to climb up the ladder and open new doors to accommodate for the lower levels of silage to be blown out of. It also provides an access to make repairs when needed.

I hope that all makes sense!

This is the bottom of the chute. Once the unloader blows the silage through the door and gravity sends it down the chute, it is funneled onto a...

...conveyor. The conveyor (also electric) takes the silage up, up, up...

...and across to the bunk. See the conveyor coming out of the shed and connecting to an extended conveyor?
The silage keeps traveling until it gets to the bunk.

Once it gets to the bunk area, the silage falls down another short chute (that white vertical tin spout there) and onto another conveyor called a belt bunk feeder.

The silage falls into this area and rides down the belt, all 130 feet of it. By landing on the belt and being moved along, the whole length of the feeder can be filled from silage falling in just that one area.

See? It's full.
But now we have a problem. The feed is on the belt being moved along but not in the bunk where the cattle can eat it.
The solution...

A scraper called a plow moves along the belt back and forth the whole length of the bunk to push the silage down off the belt and into the bunk.

Once its in the bunk, all the mamas, the older calves and what bulls are running with them can chow down! At different times of the year (depending on weather, available pasture grass and state of pregnancy of the cows), the herd gets fed different amounts. When times are more stressful (like harsh winter weather) or there is no grass, the cows get fed more. When things are less stressful (pleasant weather) or there is an abundance of grass, the cows get fed less or none at all (like in the summer when they have their fill of grass!).

There are two sides of the bunk and since the bunk is 130 feet long, that means we have 260 feet of feeding space.

It all sounds very complicated, but it really is a convenient set up. There is another advantage to us feeding cows here: See how all the cows are eating breakfast and the gates are closed? Most of the time, the gates are opened and the cows have freedom to come and go from pasture to bunk as they please. On this day, however, Josh and Loren were planning to sort out the cows that were due to calve in the next couple of weeks, so once all the cows were up and eating, Josh was able to shut the gates to lock them up so the fellas could sort through them and take those that were close to calving to the calving pasture where they could keep a closer eye on them.

Just another view. Yet another reason why this is a great set up is that it allows Josh to walk through the herd every morning to check on their health. He can see how close they are to calving, if any are sick, if any are hurt or if a virus or something is starting to break out. Did you know cows have contagious illnesses go through the herd just like people have illnesses that are passed along? By keeping such a close eye on things, the guys can keep the herd healthy and stop anything that might come up before it gets too serious.

I'm sure the cows were wondering what Josh was doing and what all the flashing lights were about. The little guy in the lower left hand corner looking at you is a fall calf that will be weaned this spring.

On today's breakfast menu: Oatlage (chopped oats)
On tomorrow's breakfast menu: Oatlage
On the next days menu: Oatlage
On next month's menu: Oatlage
On the next month's menu: Nothing.... they'll have to fend for themselves eating grass in the pasture!
(You thought I was gonna say oatlage, didn't you?!)

I like big butts and I cannot lie.
<<Josh made me do it>>

MOOOOOOOOOving on...

<<again, Josh made me do it>>

A look from the bottom of our hill up to the silo and the cows eating. This would be a beautiful picture if only the grass were green!

Now, on to some funner stuff...

Yes, I said funner and yes, I homeschool my kids.

The kids got a kick out of playing in the bunk the afternoon after we had worked on the cattle. This will be another post, but we had to run the herd through the chute and give them their vaccinations. After being ran through the chute, sprayed and being given a shot for their annual vaccinations, they were just about as far away from us as they possibly could get. It gave the kids a great opportunity to just play.