Farm Tidbits- Silage Week
posted on
May 26, 2023
It’s one of our favorite weeks of the year- silage week! We’ve been grazing our beloved ryegrass all winter and in March & April we have moved the cows onto their summer grass pastures.
So, in the last 2 months the ryegrass has put on tremendous growth. We started Monday cutting the grass into windrows, giving it a few hours to dry to about 60% moisture and then we use our chopper to cut it into 1” long pieces and pack it into our silage pit. Just a big pile of grass clippings.
![Dave-in-grass.jpg](https://s3.amazonaws.com/grazecart/fischerfarms/images/1685018914_646f5922b148c.jpg)
We will cover it with plastic to keep it airtight and the wet grass will ferment to make delicious cow feed.
Seeing so much above ground growth ensures there is also a crazy amount of root growth to build organic matter. We are following the chopper with a no-till corn planter so the fields will have 1-3 days without a weather appropriate crop growing.
![In-house-Ryegrass-2.jpg In-house-Ryegrass-2.jpg](https://s3.amazonaws.com/grazecart/fischerfarms/images/1685108799_6470b83fe8bd6.jpg)
Maximizing growth, maximizes photosynthesis and thus carbon capture. All fun stuff!!!
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