OT - Corn Fodder In Silo For Bedding

Hey Guys,

Due to the wet fall, we have no wheat planted for next year. This means no bedding for the hogs after next fall.

I was wondering if I could chop dry corn fodder next fall after harvest and blow it into an unused upright silo for storage. I would empty it using the unloader.

Will this work?? Too fluffy to get enough in the silo?? Will the unloader work to empty it??

I'm just trying to find a cheap alternative to straw until 2012. I have enough straw in the mows now, to get me through next fall, I just need about 6 months of carry over. If this works, I may keep the silo topped off just for the added cusion, plus it's less labor intensive than baling straw for our operation.

Any opinions?? Hints?? Am I crazy?? I know corn fodder will make good bedding, I just don't want to fill a silo and not be able to get it out.

Thanks for any feedback.

Tim K in NW Ohio ~ Thinking this isn't even close to some of my crazier ideas.....

I think the corn fodder, after chopping, will have too much moisture to be considered bedding, and be too dry to make sileage. Putting that in the silo could be a good case for spontaneous combustion. Happened to a dairy farmer in Wis. He put up corn for sileage that was way too dry. It started smoldering near the top of the silo and burned all the way down to the ground slowly. Took months. My neighbor makes bedding out of corn fodder by chopping it with a green chopper and leaves it lay in the field long enough to dry and then bales it with a round baler. He shreds the bales when ready for use.

my favorite topic - cornstalks......

think of cornstalks like hay - they have to be dry when u make them and keep them dry to use as a straw. hey will be fluffy in the silo -

I have a 1915 experiment where they went out and put cornstalks in april in a silo - then added water - then packed them down then it turned into silage

<a href="http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c213/thebonepile/?action=view&current=PA190061.jpg" target="_blank"> </a>

I do a lot of experiments - haven't perfected it yet - piling the chopped stuff on the ground (even if covered) - i think to much moisture wicks up from the ground through the small particles

Also, chopping dry material through a forage chopper can dull the knives rather quickly.....

All in all, this is what i would do - this from a few years of experiments - wait until the stalks are dry (atleast a few days after combining) (or spring would be perfect if you can wait to disk /plow) - use an ordinary bar rake in the standing stalks - rake a couple swaths together then harvest.

If you round bale and net wrap - you will still need to tub grind or reduce particle size before using -

if u use the forage harvester then the battle is keeping the material u make dry - actually blowing into a mow might be better than a silo - this is awfully fluffy stuff

i am more looking to use the stalks as a feed source - so I am approaching this different

one of my "crazy" ideas... I've often thought that if you have a green chop flail chopper, chop into a silage wagon, then unload the wagon on a cement pad or a good firm clean area on the ground in a windrow and then bale using a square or round baler. The chopper will get it fine enough and you won't be bouncing the baler thru the rough corn field. I'd be a bit worried about putting it in the silo due to fire.
If you bale make sure its good and dry.

i once worked for a man that would use his john deere cut and throw chopper blow into chopper wagons and use elevator to make a huge pile of fodder. then cover with a trap
used fodder in barn under the cows and in calf pens.
would leave on wagons run off as needed for cattle sheds.
keep cattle dryer than straw
i don't think one can get fodder dry enough to make small bales and store in a building or to make round either as need to be really dry to not mold that makes problems for both people and critters

We shredded that by changing the cutting knives on the Papec silage cutter and used that for bedding when the straw ran out. We blew it into the straw mow. We never had a picker. All the corn was husked by hand and put into shocks. Usually did that on Saturdays when my brother and I were off from school. Some of the cows liked the taste. Hal

I've used corn fodder for hog bedding for the past two years a will continue to. We round bale it and sit them all ong the fence row. The hogs love it. It's a little bit of work to get in the pens but they work it down pretty good once it is in there. You can hardly tell it was corn fodder when you haul it out.

my favorite topic - cornstalks......

Click to expand...

The stalks in ChrisLSD's picture is what I'm envisioning. Do you think there's enough moisture in them to combust?? I'll have to get them picked up before winter..... I'm figuring I'll run out of straw mid December.

Thanks for all the responses, this is why I asked.... lot's more knowledge out there than my circle of friends.

Tim K in NW Ohio ~ Who doesn't want a smoking silo.....

You can plant spring wheat, oats, barley, etc. A neighbor chopped stalks and put it into a silo for years- you may want a ring drive, rather than surface drive unloader. I don't understand the concern about chopping and baling corn stalks- been done for years here. Yes, the drier the better. By fodder, do you/they mean something else?

Many many acres of cornstalks are chopped with a stalk chopper (big flail mower), windrowed (raked with a hay rake) and baled (with a round baler, tho some will use a small square baler for a few 100 bales) here for a bit of feed & lots of bedding for cattle.

I'm not sure what the different needs of hogs would be, but 'here' baling would be the way to go.

A friend of mine square bales a lot of stalks, he has hogs, I'm not 100% sure how he uses them tho - some is for mulching the death loss, but I think a lot get used for bedding of some type.

--->Paul

I'd just chop it long and blow it into a stack away from outbuildings and use as needed much like years ago when they used corn shredders. If you get a good top pack it sheds the weather off the bottom. The neighbors may not like corn husks blowing across the yard on some windy days tho. Snow fence around the bottom makes a good stack starter. Most fires started by these stacks were from tractor sparks, ironery kids or errant cigarettes.

"By fodder, do you/they mean something else?" I remember Granddad and Dad as well as other farmers years ago used that word fodder. Reffering to cornstalks. They would cut and shock the corn by hand. Would haul it in as needed shuck the ears of corn for hogs, throw "fodder" to cows. Fodder is basically a course bulky feed. I remember a one guy who would grind straw for filler and mix with grain. He called the straw fodder. That is what I know about fodder around here.

after reading the comments and replies.....

I would recommend making the stalks with your chopper - I do have the recutter screen in mine to hold the husks in a little longer - the feed rolls in this case can't hold the plant stems and advance them the right amount near as good as when u are chopping 9 foot high corn silage - mine came with an alfalfa recutter screen it is called so that is what i use -

then i would just pile the dry stuff in a pile - cover it would be preferred - and start using it when it is convenient -

once u use it you will like the stuff - it doesn't pack all together like staraw - absorbs good - the only downside is they eat so much of it......

report back to me - I am interested in what you come up with - I might do some this weekend....we shall see cwlwrnsn@[email protected] (remove the @nospam)

I'll try to reply again tonight. Last night I typed up a big response, spent about an hour. When I hit submit, the forum told me I was a suspected spammer so it canned my post!! Arrrrgggghhhhh!!!!

OK, so I guess the silo option is out of the question?? What keeps it from heating up in a stack outside??

You guys already answered my next question about the best way to chop. I was debating a flail chopper or silage chopper, I have both at my disposal, I guess I'll go with the silage unit.

[b:c6842757ac]Somebody mentioned blowing it into the mow. What keeps [i:c6842757ac]that [/i:c6842757ac]from heating??[/b:c6842757ac] I'm asking that, not to be a smart a$$, but because I really want to know. (I put it in bold print so it wouldn't be overlooked.)

I'm trying to avoid outside stacks, just because of convenience. We have two kinds of winter here, cold with lots of snow or warm and rainy without frozen ground. I don't think I want to be fooling around with bedding outside with either weather option.

One of the high points of my silo plan was lack of labor needed at a busy time. I figured two people could handle the job OK, small bales would take a couple more. Big rounds are out because of the way the barns are set up.

Keep brainstorming guys, I appreciate the help/knowledge.

Tim K in NW Ohio ~ Heading out for the day's final barn check in misty rain.... again.

many barns have burnt down by putting hay in them that they thought was dry -

Basically combustion happens when a material starts to ensile or ferment and then runs out of water to finish - then it gets hotter and hotter and starts to actually burn - therefore the fluffier this stuff starts out the better - I have heard of the big barns actually having a silo blower pipe run all the way to the top - then just fill the mow - I do like that idea - but have also heard of others just opening up their barn mow door and using a silage blower and only like a 10 foot piece of pipe and a deflector-

i did some the other day - 2 days after combining around 22% moisture corn (the experts say at the time of usual combining the stalks have twice the moisture of the harvested crop) put it in a big pile hoping (but loose - hadn't packed it yet) and it hasn't gotten any hotter than the day it was put there - just like dry stuff - i think a lot of it is because it froze so long ago - (southeast South Dakota)

Thanks Chris,

I never would have guessed there was that much moisture in a stalk at harvest..... I know sometimes there is still a green tint and that would be pretty wet, but completely brown stalks, wow!!

So what you are saying is a 12' stack wont pack tight enough to heat like a 40' silo?

We had neighbors loose barns when I was a kid to wet hay, I guess I didn't realize how fluffy chopped stalks were going to be. If it wasn't so bloomin' wet around here, I'd go out and expirement this fall. We can't seem to get more than one day of sunshine in a row though.

I'm still clinging to the silo idea. If we assune I can get them dry enough, do you think a regular unloader will throw them back down??

The neighbor a mile down the road has an old wooden bunker silo with a cement floor and approach I could probably use. I could bring it home a wagon full at a time..... hmmmmm....... we are getting back to labor issues again though. Looks like more head scratching.

Thanks for humoring a stubborn Bohemian with stupid questions.

Tim K in NW Ohio ~ Hoping for an early dry spring so oats could solve my problem.