Pass The Peas, Please

Farmer John spent much of this past week working in the "kitchen." No, he wasn't preparing our family breakfast, or lunch, or dinner either. 

He was making meals for our cows.

The oats, peas, and barley that were planted in early May are now 

ready to be made into "meals."

Oats ready to be cut.

The oats are cut into rows and ready to be chopped.

This is what the oats look like when cut down, waiting to be chopped.

The barley and peas are planted together, and are cut into rows also.

Now in rows, the barley and peas are waiting to be chopped.

 

The oats, barley, and peas are all chopped and blown into a wagon like this which is pulled behind the forage chopper.

You can watch a video of chopping haylage here. It is the same procedure as the oats, barley and peas chopping, only done with alfalfa hay. It will help you get the idea though.

And lastly it is stored in our bunker (kind of a cow-food pantry) until it is time to be served.

We have two 24' x 75' concrete bunkers to store our haylage, oats, barley, and peas.

After several days (and nights) of Farmer John's meal preps, there are many meals prepared. So ring the dinner bell. Let's get another meal on the table.

We take meal prep very seriously, since dairy cows must be healthy and well cared for in order to produce high-quality milk.