fall forage for grazing: week 3

It is week 3! I walked into one of the seeded fields this morning. The turnips, rye, and oats are continuing to grow quickly. 

 

The turnips have been really fun watching grow. They change so much so quickly!  

I am looking forward to checking the seed at week 4!

corn silage

We chopped corn and bagged it as silage for feed this winter. The silage is additional feed to hay baled this season.

 

 

I caught silage in the field and hauled it into the site to be bagged. On my cabless tractor, I got a little silage in my hair. Ha! It is an interesting process to me. I love seeing how quickly the bag fills.

 

 

 

Really nice looking silage to feed! And, it smells wonderful! Our cattle will very much enjoy chowing on it.

 

 

 

We bagged 150' of corn silage. When we feed the silage, we will use the loader tractor to scoop and fill the SI Feeder wagon. 

fall forage for grazing: week 2

It is week two for the seeding! The turnips, rye, and oats are growing very well. I love seeing the change each week. It is pretty exciting!

 

 

It is still amazing to me how quickly the fall forage is growing. Rain fell today, so it will keep growing rapidly. I look forward to checking in next week!

 

 

fall forage for grazing: week 1

We had two fields of turnips, rye, and oats aerial seeded in standing corn on September 7. It rained in the evening. So, it was perfect for seed germination.

 

turnips, rye, and oats

These fields will be future cow chow! Eek! Our cows will be grazing these fields during the fall and winter.

 

 

 

 

After cattle chores this morning, I decided to check fields since it has been one week since they were seeded. I was absolutely amazed by what I found when walking into a field! I was so excited to have my dad look.

 

 

 

 

It was very impressive to see the growth of the turnips, rye, and oats seeding in one week! It was incredible! The turnips measured 2-3" in height. And, the rye and oats measured 3-5". So surprising.

 

 

 

 

I very much look forward to checking the fields next week! It will be interesting to see the growth of the turnips, rye, and oats.

 

 

fall forage for grazing

aerial application

 

In August, I decided to have two fields aerial applied with seeding...one field at each farm. This seeding will produce forage for our cows to graze through this fall and winter. After much thought, I decided to seed the fields with turnips, rye, and oats. Speaking with the agronomist at River Valley Cooperative, I arranged to have the fields seeded when the corn was at the perfect stage for the seeds to make contact with the soil. Driving home after cattle chores this morning, I pleasantly surprised to find a plane flying over our farms. I turned around and drove to a field to watch the seeding applied. It was so neat hearing the seeds fall onto the corn field!   

 

turnip, rye, and oat seeds rest on top of the soil

 

This afternoon, my dad and I went to the field to check out the seeding. The turnip, rye, and oat seeds were resting on top of the soil. It was amazing seeing the new crop among the standing corn to be harvested. Perfect timing...it rained this afternoon and is raining this evening! The rain will be extremely beneficial for the seeds to germinate well.

 

I have been wanting to seed fields as fall forage for a few years, so I am pretty excited to actually get this done. This is our future cow chow! I am looking forward to seeing the turnips, rye, and oats grow through this coming fall! And, I am hoping our cows enjoy their fall forage!