Crow Damage...

Was it crows?  Or was it the eagles Jim saw flying around recently?  Was it both?

Either way, I spent part of the afternoon taping up bird damage to the ag bags.  The balage (hay that was baled before it was dry) inside needs to remain completely sealed to the air in order to ferment and not mold.  Even the tiniest holes can cause damage...

You might have to enlarge the picture (just click on it) to see, but all around the top edge of this bale, there are small holes that have been pecked through to the balage. There are a lot of layers of plastic around the bales, so you know it takes persistence to make these holes. We're pretty sure it's the pesky crows!

This was one of the medium sized holes...only about 1/4" in diameter, but the birds had begun to pull the balage out, and there will probably be some mold inside when we open this bale up for feeding.  That part will have to go in the gutter.  Thankfully most of the holes were tiny, and only a couple were larger...

THIS...it's hard to see, (here again, enlarge it to see it more clearly) but I see muddy paw prints and claw marks on the side of this bale.  A raccoon perhaps?

This bale was damaged at perfect head height for a crow as it sat on the ground...

Through the eyes of the ag bag tape...

My helpers may be old in dog years, but they still like to go out in the fields with me.  As soon as I head out behind the barn they're right beside me!  Phoebe had been out with us earlier, but decided that lounging in the barn was too hard to resist...

Just another adventure on a beautiful December day!  Several days straight without any rain!  Unheard of here lately!

Crows, Crows, Go Away...

Crows.

I've written about them before...how they are such a nuisance to farmers. They scavenge just about anything, sometimes harmlessly, but sometimes they cause damage to growing crops or in this case to already preserved feed.  Here's a post written almost exactly two years ago about how they can damage a silage ag bag.

We don't put out silage ag bags any more, but we regularly have round bales of hay wrapped in plastic which are stored along the edge of the fields.  Jim then brings them into the barn as we need them.

Over the past couple of years, we've had problems with numerous animals damaging the bags.  We've had cats using them as scratching posts, and this year the damage has been from crows!

We've seen large flocks of them in the fields around us over the past few weeks, and last week we discovered that they'd been having a feast on some bales that we had stored along the edge of a field on some rental property.

This bale is laying on it's side now, but you can see all the tape that is covering up crow damage.  If you can imagine the bale rotated 90% counter clockwise, this would have been the top of the bale.  The birds sat on top and pecked away through the plastic until they reached the hay underneath. Once air gets inside the bag, spoiling begins quickly.  You can see near the middle of the picture, a hole that was either made after I initially taped the bale up, or one that I missed.  I think probably the birds came back because there was another hole pecked right through a piece of tape. Grrr...

They also sat on the ground around the bags and pecked away at "crow level"...anywhere from 8" - 12" from the ground.

This is one of the bales right after Jim opened it up...

You can see a bit of mold in the center right side of the picture.  Thankfully, Jim caught the damage pretty early, and the mold seems to be only on the first few outside layers.  A few days later and the bale could have been pretty seriously damaged, and into the gutters it would go, wasted.

I'm thinking back a few years to when flocks of crows were hanging around the local shopping mall, creating dirty messes on shoppers' cars and on the roof of the building.  In a letter to the editor in the newspaper, someone suggested that "the crows be sent out into the country into the farm fields where they could live in peace".

Hmmmmm....I'm glad that wasn't even a realistic option!

Rye Grass 2016...

Oh my...the weather this spring has been a challenge!

We had a dry April...and now a wet and cool May.  It's time to be thinking seriously about planting corn, and soon after, soybeans.

The fields have been sprayed, and the weeds are dying.  That's a good thing.

The weather has been cool and rainy.  That's not such a good thing.  Not when it doesn't stop.

But first things first...

The rye grass was just beginning to mature, and to get the best nutritional value for the cows, it should be harvested before the heads form.  The weather wasn't looking too promising, but Jim thought he might get a window of sunshine, so he mowed on Thursday.  The rye grass was thick and beautiful...

On Friday it rained all day, but because the grass hadn't dried yet, it didn't do too much damage.

On Saturday the sun came out, and Jim used a tedder to spin the cut rye grass out and flip it over so it could dry more thoroughly.

Sunday was sunny and breezy.  Good news!

Yesterday was cloudy, and we hoped the rain would hold off, which it did. Jim raked the grass into windrows...

Last night over milking time, the round baler came and baled.  We got 43 round bales off of seven acres.  That's a good harvest!  No pictures of that, because I was milking and Jim was busy wrapping bales.  He finished around 1:00 am.

This morning when we got up, it was starting to rain.

Here's the line up of bales along the water way here at home.  (That's a roll of ag bag tape you're looking through)...

A couple of the bales had some damage, so my job was to find the holes and tape them up thoroughly.  The bags must be airtight, or the feed will mold and spoil...

The bags were wet, so I took a wad of paper towels along with the ag bag tape and taped them up...

Here's the empty field.  I'll have to ask Jim what will be planted here next...corn or beans?

My helpers eagerly ran along side of me on our way back to the barn.  Sorry girls...it's too wet for you to ride in the truck, and besides...it's good exercise!

Now we wait for a week or so before we start feeding the rye grass.

The cows should be happy!

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?!

Keeping the Crows at Bay...

Crows...

They may be very intelligent birds...but they are an extreme nuisance on the farm!  They eat almost anything, but two thirds of their diet comes from vegetables and plants...primarily corn.

Hmmm...do you see the problem?

After the corn harvest, it's common to see huge flocks of crows converging on the cornfields, pecking away at corn that's been left in the field.  When manure has been spread, guess who comes to scavenge?  And what is the attraction of an ag bag like this?  How do the crows know that they're filled with corn silage?  They really must be intelligent.

So...we are left with the dilemma of trying to figure out how to keep the crows away from the bag.  If they poke holes in the bag...and they will...the silage will spoil. The bag must remain air tight until it's transferred to the silo. And if they get a taste of that corn silage, they will be back for more!

To try to keep the crows away, Jim put up several owls on posts around the ag bag.  The owls are hollow inside, and sit on top of metal or wooden posts. When the wind blows, they move a bit, which makes them look more life like...

We also put a couple of old hoses on top of the bag, and fastened them down with ag bag tape.  Don't they look a little bit like snakes?

So far this year, we've been lucky.  Although we've spotted them nearby, they haven't yet done any damage.  I checked out the bag when I took these pictures this morning, and it still looks untouched.

The bag will probably be transferred to the silo soon, and this particular battle will be over.  You can bet though...the crows will be hanging around when the transfer happens, looking for any silage that's spilled.

Anything for a free meal!

Happy Anniversary!

On a beautiful sunny October day...exactly twenty years ago today...

Jim and I got married!

Here's how some of our anniversary was spent...

Jim and Daniel (our neighbor helper) buried the end of the ag bag permanently. They dug a trench about twelve inches deep and buried the end of the bag, covering it with dirt to give it a tight seal...

I only got back out with my camera after milking tonight, so it's a little hard to see here, but Jim packed the dirt by driving back and forth with the truck. If it's not packed tightly, the end can pop out...

As the silage ferments, it creates gas.  Stinky, potent gas.  I made the mistake one year of putting my nose to the slit and sniffing.  Bad. Idea. !!

The slit in the bag allows the gas to escape...

It was pretty much a normal day.  That's how it is this time of year...there's always something to do, no matter if it's a birthday, anniversary, or holiday...but it was a good day!

And this is how the day is ending...with a beautiful sunset!

I love October!

Done...

Finally...corn silage is done for the year!

This morning around 8:00, the guys rolled in with the harvester, tractors, wagons and the bagger, to chop our last field of corn silage.  Rather than refilling the silos now, we chose to put out a 150' ag bag.  Later this winter when the ground is frozen, we'll transfer it to the much emptier silos.

It was a rush to beat the rain.

Setting up the bagger, with the field to be chopped in the back ground...

The bag, which comes all folded up in a box, has to be positioned on the bagger and clamped into place...

Taking a look inside the bagger...

Once it's in place, the end is securely tied shut.  This end will be tucked underneath the bag as it fills...

The bagger is powered by a tractor, which is put into neutral.  As the bag fills, it gradually pushes the tractor forwards.  I sat in the tractor for a while to make sure it was going in a straight line.  It's a unique perspective, looking out the back window...  (pardon the dirt!)

The guys driving the forage wagons have to watch carefully as they are unloading, pulling forward bit by bit as the bagger inches forward.  It gets a bit monotonous sometimes for them as you can see here...

Well under way.  The far end of the bag is braced against some plywood boards and a pick up truck, to hold it in place as they get started...

Almost done!  Here they're counting the folds left in the bag, to see if all of the silage will fit inside.  You need to have some extra plastic left at the end, to seal the bag properly...

The bagger has just been pulled away, and you can see some silage spilling out the end of the bag...(there are rain drops on my camera lens!)

Here, Jim's forking the silage that spilled out back into the bag as far as he can, getting ready to seal up the bag...

All finished for today!  They temporarily closed the bag...rolling the end of it shut around a piece of wood, and securing it with cement blocks.  You can see the bag already beginning to puff up with gas...

It's raining now, but in the next day or so, Jim will use the skid loader to bury the end of the bag more securely.  It's critical that it remains air tight, so the silage cures properly and doesn't spoil.

It's so good to have this job finished for the year!

Nasty Birds...

I remember a few years ago...a local shopping mall was having issues with crows hanging out on the roof...making a mess of things.  The "powers that be" were trying to decide what to do about the dirty birds.  Someone suggested that they try to relocate the birds to some farms in the area, where they wouldn't be a nuisance.  Hmmmmm...

#1.  Did you ever hear of a bird being told where to go, or where to stay?

#2.  Do you know of any farmer who really wants a huge flock of crows hanging out on his farm?  Or even a small flock, for that matter?

They are a nuisance...not only are they dirty birds, but they can cause a lot of damage.

Most of our balage ag bags are close to the buildings, and appear to be fine, but we have a couple of groups of bales along the edge of a field that seem to have attracted some unwelcome visitors!

Take a look at these...they look fine from a distance, but if you look closely, you can see a black hole on the bottom right side of the bale closest to the camera...

We've been finding holes like this all over these round bales.  Some of them are at beak level (if the crow was sitting on the ground) and a lot are on the top edges of the bales, as if the birds were sitting on top and leaning down over the side.

This hay was baled wet, and needs to be completely air tight in order to be properly cured and preserved.  When air gets inside the plastic, the hay starts to get moldy, and can eventually be ruined.  Not only does it not taste good, it can be dangerous for the cows to eat.

Most of the holes are rather small, but here's a larger one on the top of the bale.  That plastic is really thick, so the crows had to be really determined to get at whatever they thought was inside.  They most likely were hoping to find some grain.  Too bad for them...

So...armed with my "tools", I headed out to try to repair the damage...

There were sixteen bales in this group, and I used almost all of the ag bag tape to cover the holes tightly, hopefully sealing them in time to prevent further damage.

The first bale that we found with holes in, has been opened up and doesn't appear to be moldy, so we are hoping that we caught them in time!

There's always something to keep us on our toes!

Transferring the Ag Bag....

Well...it's finished! 

Things went relatively well today with transferring the corn silage from the ag bag into the silo.

It took a little while to get set up this morning...there was some hard, crusty snow on the sides of the bag and around the bottom that needed to be cleared away before they could cut the bag and pull it back.

Once the end of the bag was opened, the first glimpse didn't look so great!  The slope end of the bag is never packed as tightly as the rest of the bag, and a tightly packed bag is crucial to preserving the feed! This is the end where the bagger was pulled away, the remaining silage shovelled in by hand, and the end buried to make an airtight seal.  Typically we don't have much trouble, but this year we lost a little silage at this end.  There were a few small holes which created problems!

The white that you see is ice on the silage around the edges, and that's normal.  But some of the silage itself was spoiled.  We were concerned...

 It's never a good sign to see the manure spreader out by the ag bag!  The spoiled silage went right back onto the field for fertilizer.  (and food for the crows, who are now welcome to help themselves!)  Thankfully, it was just one spreader load...

The rest of the plastic is pulled back...

and it looks great!  The cows and the farmers are happy...

The morning continued...Ken is a master with his loader tractor...

The silage is unloaded off the trucks and into the blower...

...and up into the silo.  Can you tell which silo it's going into?



Now Jim has two silos to level, and we have one silo unloader to lower and set up.  Sounds like that will keep us busy for another afternoon.  It wouldn't do to be bored!

 And...now that we're finished transferring the ag bag, the tractor operator is free to go to Florida!


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