The Tale of Two Preemies: Fridays on the Farm

Friday, September 23, 2011

Fridays on the Farm

I realize my posts have been very few and far between. I am determined to do better (at least for today:). In an effort to keep my blog slightly more organized, I am going to try a feature I call:

Wait for it...

Fridays on the Farm.

Bet you didn't guess that!

So every Friday (or at least every Friday that I get to it) I will post a bit of an update on our farm or tackle some agricultural issue that puts me on my soap box. Aren't you excited? Are there any of you left anyway?

For today, I'll give you an update of what we've been doing the last month around the farm. August and September are always busy months for us. August brings the 4th and final crop of hay for the year. We do 2 things with our hay. We chop it and bag it to make haylage. Haylage is fermented alfalfa. Due to the cows multiple stomachs and complicated digestive system, they like fermented food. That's keeping it overly simple. We bag as much of the first and second crops of hay that we can. We use the third crop of hay to fill our quota for the year and usually bale dry hay from the 4th crop and whatever doesn't fill a bag from the previous 3. The hay is sealed in the bags and needs at least 6 weeks to ferment before we can use it.

These are bags of silage (haylage bags are the same).

We chopped our silage a little over a week ago. Silage is chopped corn, stalk, husk, cob, and all. Silage time is much busier than hay. We get 4 crops of hay to make enough feed for our cows for a year, but silage is done in one shot. It took us about 3-4 12 hour days to get the silage put up for the year. (When I say us, what I mean is 6 guys chopping, hauling, and bagging, and my MIL and me making dinner).

Now that all the hay and silage is put up for the year, the wagons are cleaned, greased, and put away, it's time to focus on corn and soybeans. Pat has been busy working on his new grain storage bin.

A crew of guys came and put it up in about a day and a half. Pat has been busy working on the augers to put the corn in and to take it out. The corn stored in the bin will be used throughout the year for feeding. They will auger it out, run it through a roller mill to break up the corn, and use it for feed along with ground corn, dry hay, haylage, and silage. The goal is to harvest the corn for the bin, starting Sunday.

After that we may get a bit of a break while the soybeans die off and dry down. Of course, that break will be used to haul manure and catch up on maintenance of everything else that's been neglected for the last month.

In the meantime, the 4 1/3 of us will be heading out tonight for a much needed trip out of town. The boys and I are in desperate need of some better fitting clothes. I'm already wearing my one pair of "fat" pants and I think I only have 2 pairs of maternity jeans. Well, I'm off to pack!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Cole's Story

Cole was born at 30 weeks 3 days, much to our surprise, in 2006. I went in to the hospital because I wasn't feeling well and was afraid I'd get dehydrated. I ended up being air lifted to a larger hospital where Cole was born 24 hours later. He weighed in at 4 lbs. 2 oz. and was 17" long. He had some developmental delays, mostly due to acid reflux. He also had positional plagiocephaly and was in a remolding helmet for 6 weeks. At 14 months he underwent a cardiac catheter procedure to close his PDA. At 25 months he tripped getting out of his kiddie pool and broke his femur. He was in a cast from his hips to his toes for 4 long weeks. He also broke his shoulder at age 5 1/2. His latest medical drama has been a cyst in his left ear. He's had his adenoids removed and another surgery to remove the cyst. He'll have a second surgery in August. He's been through the ringer, but you'd never know it. He just rolls with the punches. He's 100% farm boy. He wants to know how everything works and why. He loves the farm. Farming is definitely in his blood.

Tate's Story

Tate was born at 34 weeks 2 days in 2008. Since I had a previous premature delivery, I was on high alert for another one. It didn't help. We had ultrasound after ultrasound and everything looked great. Tate, however, was not patient. I was admitted to the hospital with preterm labor. He held off for a couple of days, but was still born early. He weighed 5 and a half pounds and was 19" long. Fortunately he had no problems and was released from the hospital 3 days after he was born. He was born the middle child. He desperately wants to do what his big brother does, but has his own interests and wants Cole do to those with him. He's my trouble-maker, fit-thrower, and snuggle bug.