Corn silage harvest began in earnest a few days ago. The dairy we sell the corn to hires a crew to chop and haul the silage to the dairy where it gets packed into a bunker silo.

We know the chopper driver and his crew and I got to ride with them for a while.

Here’s the semi truck lining up beside the chopper to be filled.

This is the main separator that pushes the stalks down and guides them into the chopper. He takes 8 rows at a time. Some choppers take 10 rows. Claus (the manufacturer of the chopper) is working on a machine that will take 20 rows at a time.

 

You can see the chopped up corn silage coming out of the spout and into the semi. It took about 4.5 minutes to fill this truck.

There is goes filled to take the silage to the dairy about a mile away. There were six trucks running this day.

Justin Flax, the chopper driver, runs by GPS.

There is a camera on the side of the chopper spout and that box above his hand shows the spout emptying into the truck.

 

These are three of the four disks that pull the corn into the machine.