A few weeks ago we harvested our winter small grain crop to make it into a fermented cow food called silage. Here are a few pictures of the process.
This is what the crop looks like before harvesting.
This machine is a Windrower it cuts the crop and gathers it into rows to be chopped up by another machine
This machine is a Forage Chopper it picks the rows up and cuts it into approximately inch long pieces then blows it into the truck.
the trucks then back into this machine that packs the pieces of the crop into long plastic tubes.
The crop then ferments inside these airtight tubes and within a few weeks it is cow food.
For more about some of the other things we feed our cows read What Do Cows Eat?
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About raylindairy
Ray is a partner with his parents in Ray-Lin Dairy in Denair, Ca. The operation milks 475 cows and double crops corn & winter forage on 130 of the 240 acres with about 90 acres of pasture. The family also has 1200 ac operation in Klamath Falls OR that raises alfalfa hay, wheat hay, and oat hay. Ray is currently secretary of the Agchat Foundation an entity he helped found whose mission is to empower farmer to use social media. He is currently a on the board of directors of CA Dairy Campaign, Dairy CARES, and is the 2nd Vice-President of Stanislaus County Farm Bureau. He is also a member of the National Dairy Board. In addition to his involvement in agricultural organizations’ he is the Chairperson of the Governance Committee at a newly formed charter school his daughter attends, and serves as a director for the East Stanislaus Resource Conservation District. Ray and his wife Erica live on the dairy with their two children.
Ray-Lin Dairy 
I wish you could get the smell of fresh cut crops to come through my computer to my office! Looks like a hard days work!
Posted by Jodi | May 5, 2011, 12:09 PMRaising cattle on your own place Article by Charles Sanders from Issue #85. … An important consideration when providing shelter for cattle is to make it.
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Andrew.
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Posted by chocolates | May 10, 2011, 2:12 AM