Farming #1: Grinding Feed

Okay I know. I missed my last weekly post. I promise I won't do that this week. I felt really bad that I missed that post, so yesterday I braved the snow and the cold to take some photos while doing chores so I can show you guys how we take kernels of corn and turn them into usable feed.

The corn on the left is what it looks like right after combining. The corn on the right is what we actually feed the cattle.

It really isn't too complicated. You use a grinder to grind the corn up until it is easy for the cows to eat. When you are grinding it you can also add protein and just grind it up in the feed.

That red thing to the right is the grinder. John is on the left, and Rex is in the middle. He always thinks he is gonna get a mouse that will come running out of the grinder. Silly dog.

The grinder is hooked up to our John Deere 4020 tractor and then backed up to the grain bin. You can see the gray pipe that helps guide the corn from the bin into the grinder. Don't worry, I'll do another post later about how grain bins work.

The grinder grinds 2 tons of corn at a time, which believe me, doesn't really look like it is 2 tons when it is all ground. Part of that two tons of feed is 300 lbs. of protein.

The grinder has these little windows on the side, and you know the grinder is full when the corn falls down. It is hard to explain, but through the window it will look like the corn has reached the top of the grinder bin, and then suddenly it will just.... drop. Then it looks like the corn is only about halfway up the window, but the grinder is actually full.

I know. Weird.

Here we are, backed up to the silo house. The grinder has an arm on the side that swings out and around and goes through the window of the silo house where we dump the grain.
And then in the bottom left corner there is Sly. He is Rex's brother, and he is just as much of a goofus.

So once we get the grain all ground up we then dump it in this bin in the silo house. When this bin is full the grain reaches almost all the way up to the top of that white wall.

John fills up the 5 gallon buckets that we use to feed grain out to the cattle. The amount varies depending on how many cattle are in the lot and what the weather is like.

This is number 8. She is my favorite. The picture doesn't show it very well, but she is actually cinnamon colored, not red. You can see the corn is dumped from the bucket to the concrete bunk, then the cows stick their heads over and eat.

So that is it. That is how we turn field corn into feed for our cows.

Questions? Leave them in the comments below!