It looks as if we'll be running wide open today. After the heifers get fed and the cows are moved into a grazing pad, things will really get busy.
First of all, we have a milk pump problem to attend to. One of the circuit boards has malfunctioned and it won't automatically engage when it needs to. Dad had to spend the morning milking going back and forth between the parlor "pit" and the control box in the equipment room to manually engage the pump. We've got a circuit board from the control box that was in our old milking barn, so we'll see if that'll do the trick. Otherwise we'll be calling the equipment man.
While that's going on, someone will head over to our "big" hayfield near Mt. Pisgah church to begin cutting down rye/ryegrass. We cut and chopped about 6 acres out of the field yesterday, and should be able to get 10 today and the remaining 10 tomorrow. Based on the maturity level and the weather we're having, we think that the chopper can run about 3-4 hours behind the cutter and harvest it at an acceptable moisture level.
Yesterday's harvest also pretty brought our silage pit up to capacity. We'll have to seal it off this morning and then resume cleaning out our small reserve pit. That pit should hold everything left at Mt. Pisgah, the two hayfields near my house, and some of the 30 acres of ryegrass that will still be left (that we should get to next week). Whatever doesn't go into the reserve pit will likely be baled and wrapped for baleage.
Of course, all the above assumes that everything goes as planned. That's something you can never take for granted on a dairy farm!
First of all, we have a milk pump problem to attend to. One of the circuit boards has malfunctioned and it won't automatically engage when it needs to. Dad had to spend the morning milking going back and forth between the parlor "pit" and the control box in the equipment room to manually engage the pump. We've got a circuit board from the control box that was in our old milking barn, so we'll see if that'll do the trick. Otherwise we'll be calling the equipment man.
While that's going on, someone will head over to our "big" hayfield near Mt. Pisgah church to begin cutting down rye/ryegrass. We cut and chopped about 6 acres out of the field yesterday, and should be able to get 10 today and the remaining 10 tomorrow. Based on the maturity level and the weather we're having, we think that the chopper can run about 3-4 hours behind the cutter and harvest it at an acceptable moisture level.
Yesterday's harvest also pretty brought our silage pit up to capacity. We'll have to seal it off this morning and then resume cleaning out our small reserve pit. That pit should hold everything left at Mt. Pisgah, the two hayfields near my house, and some of the 30 acres of ryegrass that will still be left (that we should get to next week). Whatever doesn't go into the reserve pit will likely be baled and wrapped for baleage.
Of course, all the above assumes that everything goes as planned. That's something you can never take for granted on a dairy farm!
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