Thursday, February 27, 2014

Moving the Ag Bag...

Today was the day...

It was time to "move the ag bag"...or in other words...transfer the silage from the ag bag to the silo.

Back in the fall, Jim put out a 150' silage bag on the west side of the barn, with plans to transfer it to the silo mid-winter.  It became a bit of a puzzle, figuring out when it could be done.  The ground needed to be hard (not a problem for most of the winter!) and the snow couldn't be too deep (not usually a problem, but this winter??) to move the bag.  The heavy silage trucks had to be able to maneuver easily or it wouldn't have worked.

Last week we had a major thaw, and a lot of the snow melted.  Then this week, the temps plummeted again, well below freezing and were accompanied by a bitter wind.  Enough said.

First and foremost...the owls were removed from around the bag.  They enjoyed their temporary perches in the tree by the outside pen...


Next, the bag had to be cleared of ice and snow.  Jeff (the guy who transferred the bag) came last evening with his loader tractor and removed a lot of snow from around the bag so the equipment could maneuver. However, there was still a thick coating of ice directly on the outside of the bag that needed to be knocked off before they could remove the plastic. That took lots of elbow grease...knocking it off with shovels.  I helped with that part, and now I know why my arms are tired tonight!


Jim cleared away more snow, and the ice that was knocked off the bag, with the skid loader...


Getting ready to start...


Jeff began cutting a big slit in the bag.  Only when the bag was removed, would we know for sure just how nice the silage was.  Jim had taken samples to be tested...and they were good...but until you see the whole thing, you always wonder just a little what it will really be like!  The tiniest of pinholes can let air into the bag and cause spoilage...


 The silage was very nice!


Jeff began loading trucks.  Some of the silage went to the other farm for the heifers...a couple of loads were sold to another farmer...but the majority of it went into one of the silos here at home for the cows...


Yes, that's a smudge on my camera's lens...and I took the picture in the wrong direction, looking towards the sun...but that's the silage uncovered, being scooped up by the loader...


So...now that the bag has been moved, spring is welcome to come.

Antyime!

Please?!

13 comments:

  1. Looks like quite a production. Glad you got the all important owls out of the way first.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hard work is so good! Glad you got it moved before the wet season!

    ReplyDelete
  3. yay! i'm sure that's been weighing on your minds for a while! glad it was great weather for it AND glad the silage was really good, too!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very interesting. Didn't know you'd do that, and always wondered what silage in those big bags was like.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow, you timed it just right. I had never seen how the agbag would work because of it's size. We wrap our silage in those big round marshmallow bales and stack them. They are brought into the barn to thaw for a few days before feeding it to the cows. So much more work to feed the cows in the winter.
    I always love to see how things are done at your farm.

    I can't wait till we can put our cows outside. They need some cleaning by now.

    Hugs,
    JB

    ReplyDelete
  6. It looks like beautiful silage. What a lot of hard work though and how cold it must be.
    I bet your cows are so happy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That is a lot of work in the weather you are having I hope your cows know how lucky they are. Hug B

    ReplyDelete
  8. The scent of ripe silage is deep in my memory banks. Looks like you have a very efficient way to handle it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I was wondering how you were going to be able to transfer the silage to the silo! I'm glad you got some decent weather to git 'r done! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I learn so much from reading your blog!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Glad you got that done. It's always a relief to have plenty of food for the animals. I'm struggling to get my bulk bin filled with our snow and ice.

    ReplyDelete

I enjoy hearing what you have to say! Thanks for your comments!