Chopping silage

Sparktrician · Aug 20, 2012

Ok....new adventure here for us....chopping corn for silage....

We have a JD model 35 chopper, 2 row wide head on it.

Opening the field, we are going to run some corn over.....will that chopper / head pick it back up? Going wednesday to get a silage wagon or two....this is all new to us....we have only been green chopping hay for direct feed for 2 years now....

Also, what are anyones recomendations on storing silage in a pile, or making a bunk out of round bales???

Any and all thoughts appreciated....thanks!!!

Don-Wi · Aug 20, 2012

You won't be able to pick it all up, and thats a part of using a pull behind chopper. If you have a green chopper that'll pick up most of it and then just feed it like you would green feed.

Donovan from Wisconsin

jon f mn · Aug 20, 2012

We made lots of corn silage piles. Never used bales for sides, just pushed it up with a front end loader and packed it well. We kept the sides as straight as posible but some round them so they are packed. I think you loose less with the straight sides so you have less top to rot. The smaller the tires on your packing tractor the tighter the pack. If your stack gets big enough you may need duals so you don't get stuck tho. If you use regular silage boxes it is easiest to blow it on the stack cus they spread it out a lot. Just set up the blower towards the end of where you want your stack and use just the curved section from the top of some pipes and blow it in a pile then level.

thurlow · Aug 20, 2012

Spent many-a-day in my younger years running a 2-row A-C (can't remember if it was a 760 or 780) silage cutter way back when. It had the cut-and-throw "J" knives and I can still remember the moan it made. Just about my favorite job on the farm. Can't tell from your description, but I assume it's a row-crop head..........you might have some problems, but you should be able to pick up the down rows.

tomstractorsandtoys1 · Aug 20, 2012

It will pick up some but be careful and run slow. It is a very good way to run stones in the harvester and if your belts on the head are not tight you can jump them off,then you have to retime them when putting back on.A Deere head will not work well unless the belts are good and timed up right,make sure your knife is adjusted to it cuts the corn off,sharpen up and remove shims on side knives.We set ours up so it will cut a piece of paper.Most Deere chopper problems are because of a poorly adjusted head.A 35 is a good harvester we wore ours completly out before getting a 3940.

Anonymous-0 · Aug 20, 2012

I've heard you will get about 80% of the rows that are run over. Anything a tire runs over you will not get. We were always too thrifty to waste corn, so had to cut two rows down and back by hand. Also the ends and enough of the corners that the chopper could get around without mashing the corn down. Manually fed the cut corn into the chopper as it traveled thru the next two rows. Immediately after starting your bundle thru the chopper you quickly cycled to the adjacent row, went to the front and readied another bundle to be fed. Required at least three men but four would allow a short "breather". You had to move quicker than a fast walk to keep up with the chopper and only three men. Chopper remained stationary as we fed corn bundles stacked in the corners. Don't believe OSHA would approve. Loved filling the silo, but hated those two very physical jobs.

JMS/.MN · Aug 20, 2012

Losses are tremendous if you don"t tightly cover the pile. Before the plastic silo bags became popular, some neighbors covered with plastic, and to hold the sides down they plowed a furrow on each side of the pile and pushed the loose dirt onto the edge of the plastic to seal it. It worked very well. Good to use some tires on top to keep the wind from whipping the plastic.

Geo-TH,In · Aug 20, 2012

In the 60's my dad took a dozer and made what we called at the time a pit or trench silo. Lined the bottom and side with concrete. We used an old JD D or a small D2 to level and pack.

Didn't put a cover over it. 6-8 inches of spoilage on top.

Used an IH H with a front loader to put the silage in the feed trough.

Besides spoilage, the silage likes to freeze in the winter.

So, if you are going to make a pit, plastic sides and bottom could be a PBITB.

What are your plans to get the silage out?

I could see a problem with just putting the silage on the dirt, way more waste.

We never made round bales of dried corn stocks, wonder how that would work out compared to silage on the ground? Just brain storming!

George

Kerry50 · Aug 20, 2012

This year was also a first for me. I had never put any corn out before and decided it was about time to give it a shot. I planted this corn on May 10. My neighbor, who has chopped corn all his life for his dairy cows, told me it looked like the corn was going to make about 50 bu/ac. So I decided to chop it. I dug a trench silo with my 953 Cat. Then lined the bottom of the silo with ag lime and rolled it in tight. Chopped the corn this past Friday and Saturday. Thinking it made close to 10 ton/ac. After filling the silo and packing it with my JD 4020, I then covered it with 6 mil black plastic. Then covered the plastic with ag lime to hold it down and seal it. The only thing that concerns me is the nitrate level. What I have read says that the ensilage process will eliminate about 50% of the nitrates. After 45 days I am going to have the silage tested for nitrates to see where I'm at.

showcrop · Aug 20, 2012

I have seen a lot of silage in piles, and have bought some out of a pile. It had worked well for the guy. He had made a little berm for his cover to go into, and had buried the edge of the cover to insure that it was air tight. Good operators will hold their covers down with tires touching one another. when it is kept that tight spoilage can be kept to only 2 inches or less. I can't see making a wall of round bales air tight.

notjustair · Aug 20, 2012

We always made sedan sileage and put it in a pit trench. Grandpa was a tightwad. We put it right on the dirt and didn't cover it. We had about 6 inches at the top that spoiled but it got fed anyway. He always thought a tractor would waste so we put it in the back of the pickup with an ensilage fork (by hand). Then shoveled it into the bunks. I can only remember using the loader tractor during heavy snows and we still forked it into the loader by hand. He did that after I was gone until he turned 80.

I do remember hauling water in 5 gallon buckets to put out fires on the pit many times. Seemed to always be about 2 am when we piled into the 1949 chev pickup to haul out water.

I still love the smell of sileage to this day. Those are some of my best memories.

Huskers86 · Aug 20, 2012

I don't know if you can adjust your length of cut to a finer setting on your machine but if you can we always set it finer on some of the last loads to a pile to help "seal" it . Every customer is different on thier way of building a pile. I don't care for bales around them as the sides of the pile don't get packed as well. A drive over mound seems to work better than a wedge, the best are a trench or in a bunker that you can pack the side tight. Here's pics of us today running. 7850 -10 row 30" and a 7700 -8 row 30" jd heads- kemper type. We had truck issues and only got up about 165 acres today. Sure has come a long way since we used the 1 row,wagons and the old f11 to push.

Chopping silage

Sparktrician

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Don-Wi

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jon f mn

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thurlow

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tomstractorsandtoys1

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Anonymous-0

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JMS/.MN

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Geo-TH,In

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Kerry50

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showcrop

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notjustair

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Huskers86

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