This blog helps me write http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/. For example, it contains photo dumps of field trips with some text so that I can search the photos later. It is not intended to be read by others. But if you find photos organized by geography interesting, then enjoy.
Friday, September 30, 2016
Harvest: Cutting and Storing Silage
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This is a contemporary picture of what was my grandfather's dairy barn. The silos, from left to right, are 50, 75, 40 and 60 feet. My first memories of the barn would be from the late 1950s. Back then only the 40' silo existed. The tramp shed and extra mow space along the road also did not exist. I remember the blower they used for the 40' silo was belt driven by their Minneapolis-Moline U tractor. Before they built the 60' silo, which was their second silo, they had switched to a PTO driven blower and self-unloading wagons.
Then they developed implements that would chop the corn in the field. The first blowers had a long hopper into which you would pull the silage off the rear of the wagon as a chain mechanism pulled the silage to the rear.
Danield Peter posted seven photos with the comment: "Recreational forage harvesting day featuring Gehl equipment on a friend’s farm a few years ago."
Dennis DeBruler: I've been looking for years for a photo of the forks with 90-degree tines and a belt driven blower. The Gehl blower and chopper is exactly what I remember on my Grandfathers's dairy farm until they switched to self-unloading wagons and a PTO-driven blower with just a hopper.
Daniel Peters: Dennis DeBruler We called those “forks” manure hooks
Dennis DeBruler: A photo showing the hopper in the upright position so that you could easily pull the wagon into place would also be interesting.
Daniel Peters: Dennis DeBruler It sure would! However I don’t have one.😢
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Daniel Peters posted The wagons were called false endgate. They were powered by a wagon Jack. [There are a lot of interesting comments on this post, including more photos. I saw the term "silage hook fork" more than once, which makes more sense to me than manure hook.]
International Harvester Collectors Chapter 37 Eastern North Carolina posted The Best of IH for '62 Dale McDaniel: IH 50 forage harvester was a twin to the CASE 300. My dad had a CASE 300 forage harvester and the IH 50 parts fit it perfectly. [1962 must have been in the transition from belt drive to PTO drive.]
A rare overview of the field operation.
Richard Davis posted Picture of our dad watching my oldest brother run the John Deere 720, chopping corn silage with JD 34 one row and JD 214 silage wagon. Mike Grimshaw: Those JD 34 & 35 harvesters had a great corn head for picking up corn laying over from wind and rain.
And then they invented self-unloading wagons, and the blowers had a small hopper. The blowers also transitioned from belt drive to PTO drive.
This video starts by showing a self-unloading wagon. Normally, you would unload into a blower. This shows what they do for the daily feeding when they can't get feed from the silo because they are filling it again. It also shows three old Oliver tractors in use.
Screenshot @ -0:13
Here’s our twice yearly set up when we are filling our upright silos. Right now we are chopping rye to put in our concrete stave silo while our unloader is cranked to the top. We are using two 880’s and one Super 77 on the Koyker elevator to load the feed wagon. Dennis DeBrulerOn my grandfather's farm, they would let the dairy cows go out to pasture during the summer and they didn't have to be fed. This made me realize that with feedlots you have to feed the cattle year round.
In fact, here is Kevin Holst's video of them unloading into a blower. I don't like profile videos, but you are not going to find many videos of silos being filled because they have been replaced with trench storage.
Screenshot @ -0:16
Silo filling time last week. We have used our Oliver 880 gas and 1850 diesel tractors to do this for 50 years now!
Videos showing corn and haylage being blown up into a silo provides a sneak peak of modern blowers in operation. One of the silos they fill is a 90-foot Harvestore.
Pulling a trailer behind the chopper video. Looks like a reel chopper. When deadheading, why doesn't he turn off the PTO? Missing a shield so you get a good view of the PTO shaft turning. I was surprised how many wheel weights were on the rear tires. They just don't bother to take them off after the tillage work? Another view of the autocoupling. A different kind of chopper video. The crop has not already been cut. The tractor pulling the trailer looks like overkill. It is an articulated tractor. The tractor at 5:03 looks more appropriate for hauling, especially since it appears they have to go through a town!
Trailed harvesting of hay, lawnmower cuter. Silage is dumped in a bunker. Good illustration of PTO shaft. Another lawnmower chopper. Dump trailers into a bunker. Look at the extra weight added to the end of the tractor that runs the loader in the bunker. It looks like they are building the stack in layers.
Trailed harvesting of winter wheat. Trailing wagon but it looks like it is also dumped, not blown. They are using two hauling tractors. Then a fourth tractor back at the bunker stacks the silage higher and compacts the stack. A tarp and lots of tires are put on top after the stack is created. Drives by a manure spreader at 13:36.
Self-propelled Claas 970 hay chopper at a fast speed.
Photos that include a fan chopper and front-unloading wagons.
Video of fan chopper and trailing wagon. Update: what I thought was the fan chopper is just a blower to get the silage up and back in the wagon. I found a parts list that confirms it is a reel chopper.
Video of reel chopper starting with the topping off of a trailer, then watching fromt he pickup side. Later the front loader seems to be building the pile in layers. Or else it is near the height that they want. Or both in this case because it is near the top, and I think they want layers so that the tires compact it.
Screenshot from video
Starting video with the first unloading. The beginning was setting up some sort of silage storage solution (bagger). The reason for saving this video is that it is the first example of the self-unloading wagons my grampa switched to. We would unload into a silo blower instead of a bagger. (This is the first time I have seen a bagger in a video.) At least some of the wagons have three axles (two in the rear).
Screenshot from video
Screenshot from video
The next day I came across another picture of a self-unloading wagon. Although it is hard to see behind the tractor, this picture also includes the type of blower and concrete stave silo my grandfather used. The auger used to break up the silage as it is moved forward is unusual. Normally I have seen tines like the JD wagon above.
Ryan Harm posted Two old girls getting the job done last week
Rick Shirey Jr. posted My silage unloading team 826 & 1066!!!
Alex Tuesburg posted seven photos of a JD flail chopper he is trying to get rid of.
Screenshot from a video Silage Reach Yes I can. [I assume they are doing this because the hillside is too steep for the truck to be in the usual position of next to the chopper. That is some incredible "marksmanship."]
Video of "John Deere D spoked tractor pulling a powered Gehl forage chopper."
It is being pulled by a 2wd John Deere 8100. The commentator mentioned it is 160hp and implied it is unusual for a tractor with that much horsepower to not have powered front wheels.
Screenshot Green chopping with my Gehl . Joe GraunkeI have a head like that. Mark FarleyAuthorJoe Graunke in good shape? This is a 6 foot cut. Some were 5 foot. [This is the first time I have seen a direct cut head. I know that silage needs to have higher moisture than bales, but I didn't know it could skip all drying time.]
Gerod Gonske commented on Mark's post Similar setup. [This is what I'm familiar with. The hay is still cut, allowed to dry some, then raked.] Mark FarleyAuthorGerod Gonske that’s a nice unit. Is that yours? Gerod GonskeMark Farley, my dad's. The 1850 has been in continuous service on our farm since it was new.
Dillon Quaney posted
My case 800 and case 210 chopper.
Big Tractor Power posted
Sperry-New Holland introduced the 1600 pull type Forage Harvester in 1979 to do the work of a self propelled 1900 at half the cost. The 1600 can harvest 4 rows of corn. In this picture it is being powered by a 195 hp Massey Ferguson 2805.
[My Grandfather's fan-design chopper in the 1960s did only one row. This appears to be a lawn-mower design.]
Jim Schwartz posted one and four pictures of a Case blower with a hopper that he bought.
Jim Schwartz posted, used Had to get the picker out and I forgot how nice this chopper looks. [A fan-type chopper.]
Skip near the end and you will see they are filling a middle bunker while the two side bunkers still have silage from the previous year. I wonder what they will do with the remainder of the old silage? Why were they feeding out of both sides? Why not feed out of one side until it is empty so that they had only one bunker with old silage?
Gordy Schultz posted
[I wasn't going to bother with "yet another chopper video" until I saw the chopper is beside the tractor rather than being pulled behind. It is too bad that we can't see the other side. Is the chopper mounted to the side of the tractor? If so, how do they go down the roads.]
Screenshot, watch some more because they have some big trench storage
2016 Wisconsin Farm Technology Field Demo - Massey Ferguson 8670 tractor and Dion F41"Stinger" harvester. 45' merged together at 5.5 mph.
Screenshot from a video
[Some people race cars. Are these people racing choppers? I doubt it. But you will see near the end of the video that his is a small fraction of the choppers participating in this "field day."]
Screenshot, 45ton/hour New Holland 800. The end talks about their manure spreaders. Mid-late 1950s.
Screenshot @ 0:10 Dennis DeBruler: This is the model my Grampa had. We were allowed to drive tractors for chores, dragging, hauling wagons and spreaders, etc. But only Grampa drove the tractor for plowing, combining and chopping. So I'm really glad to see what it looked like from the tractor's seat.
My Grampa used different brands, but this is what he upgraded to in the 1960s: a self-unloading wagon dumping into a blower with a hopper.
One of 25 photos posted by Tractorholic concerning IH hay harvesting equipment
I've been following Sandi's vlog concerning her lambing operation because she is a good narrator. And, as this video shows, she includes the non-field work that is necessary to get the equipment into the field.
(new window) When she talks about liking to do corn silage because they don't have breakdowns, she is contrasting that with their hay silage work. I've seen a hay silage video where she talks about the previous video being nothing but heartache. I haven't bothered to watch the "bad news" video. In general, her husband, Mark, does grain and she does sheep. But Mark does help harvest the crops needed by the sheep such as hay and silage. And she helps with the grain harvest.
Jim Schwartz posted one and four pictures of a Case blower with a hopper that he bought.
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