Silage, Chaff, and a huge wtf

[Dravere]

Howdy

Just trying out some cow based manufacturing and im dealing with this chaff / silage stuff.

Now theres a silo for the chaff next to the cow feeding trough. I am aware that cows are supposed to eat this chopped corn stuff however i haven't got a freakin clue how to give it to them

I compressed the silage, fermented it, and picked it up in a front loader but i cant seem to drop it in any of the feeding troughs (It just disappears). Also, according to the incredibly vague description on a lot of the front end loader stuff i am supposed to be able to transport the fermented silage via a trailer, yet the 3 or 4 trailers i have tried do not seem to 'take' the silage... what am I doing wrong?

[Dravere]

disregard, solved.

[Oblivion]

You're seriously going to do that? Just leave us hanging as to how you solved it... http://xkcd.com/979/

[ExTempus]

Originally posted by ZV Oblivion:

You're seriously going to do that? Just leave us hanging as to how you solved it... http://xkcd.com/979/

lol, I was thinking the same ^^

[Sucratzz]

pls tell us, please!

[Daniel Mtanous - USA - INACTIVE]

I believe you feed the chopped corn to the cows then ferment it so you can create silage, but you don't feed the fermented stuff to the cows. Summary *I think*: Cows eat chaff, biogas requires silage.

[Daederick]

I do not yet own enough money to go 'cow', but i think you should dump the silage in a mixer wagon. you can mix the silage with grass and maybe grains, but after the mixing, you should be able to feed it to the cows.

[Dravere]

Right so, cow farming... A lot simpler than i thought, but christ on a stick it isn't obvious :P
This is based on what I have managed to do so far, may be inconsistent or something but just roll with it.

in order of crappery
1: Straw
Straw is made by harvesting barley/wheat with a normal combine, which leaves behind that white dusty stuff. You have two ways to collect this:

1) Collect the straw directly with a forage wagon and deliver directly to the cow pen (Just back the trailer up to the food troph by the barn and you should be able to dump it directly)
2) Use a baler to turn the straw into bales, which can then be either added to a feed mixer, or added to the Kuhn Primor machine to then dump into the barn...

Other options as a result of mixing are available too, which i will go into detail on later
I recommend just using a Forage Wagon to pick up the straw and deliver it directly.

2: Grass
Grass is made by....having a lawn (?) you mow the grass with a lawn mower. Now, at this point, you have two options:

1) Collect the grass that you have mown directly with a Forage Wagon (depending on the mower you use you may or may not need to use a windrower to push it into a nice line to collect. The Krone Big M will cut it into a nice handy line for you). You then dump the grass at the troph next to the concrete wall thingy (Which is where the manure collects)

2) Using a tedder, turn the grass to dry it out, turning it into HAY, then use a Windrower to collect it into lines. You can now collect it with the forage wagon directly (Though at a reduced efficiency to using wet grass) or use a baler to turn it into HAY BALES for the feed mixer.

3: Silage
Silage (or CHAFF) is basically blitzed up corn (or grain, if you are using that particular attachment on the Krone Big X 1000) that is then dumped into the SILAGE SILO located next to the manure pen at the cow pasture. It's the thing with the concrete walls next to the one thats next to the grass trough. confused yet? lulz.
The silage then needs to be COMPACTED and then COVERED where it ferments. After the fermentation process has finished, you wind up with finished SILAGE which can be used on ze mooing ones.

Once you have the fermented product, you have to find a trailer to put it in to load it into the feeding tray for the cows. Now which trailer you might ask? WELL ♥♥♥♥ I WISH I'D KNOWN THREE HOURS AGO

I used the Kuhn Profile 1880, though the other model will probably work as well (Kuhn SPV Confort). You need a front loader with a shovel on the front (Or a silage fork). The Lizard Wheel Loader works well as it holds 10k silage at a time.

So with your front loader, scoop up some silage and gingerly place it inside the mixer trailer. Voila, you can now dump the silage at the FEEDING TROPH NEXT TO THE BARN in the cow pasture (Not the one that takes grass attached to the fence).

------------------------------------------

Now obviously with a mixer, to get 100% productivity, you want to add a bale of straw, and two bales of grass with a load of silage to make the mixed feed, but the cows will want one of each of the previously mentioned items (Straw, Grass and Silage) in their individual forms for maximum efficiency.

You can also use the mixer trailer with bales of Hay or Straw and pour them into the same troph that you put the silage in to (again, the one attached to the barn, not the fence) and this will add to the total straw / hay count on the cow statistics page thingy AS LONG AS YOU DONT add any silage, or if you want to add silage to the cows just put silage into the trailer and dump it.

So yes, in summary, at a minimum for cow ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ (i.e. 100% productivity) you need:

• At least one baler (Preferably two, one for grass, and one for straw)
  
• At least one front loader with a bale fork attachment (And a silage fork if you dont take the Lizard Wheel Loader)
  
• Corn seeding and harvesting OR Grain to chaff harvesting (I.E. the attachment for the Krone Big X 100) apparatus (Look in the store for those things)
  
• A lawn mower, with a Tedder and a Windrower
  
• A Forage Loader (For grass collection. This is optional really if you want you can just put hay bales in the mixer with nothing else and pour it into the feeding troph)
  
• Some way of getting straw (Whether its harvesting barley or wheat with a regular combine)
  
  I think that's it. If this ♥♥♥♥'s too confusing let me know and i'll try put up a tutorial video or something somehow to elaborate.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

[RyanGA]

WTF! I think I will hold off on cows for a bit. I'm still trying to get my basic farm equipment all upgraded before working on that shopping list!

[ExTempus]

Wow, great post Salt !! It took too a long time to me to figure out how to feed correctly my cows, and straw, and hay, and.. and... yes, it's a lot of work, but I was happy to investigate and find how to. It changes from collecting wheat or canola again and again...

Thanks too, because I missed the troph next to the concrete wall (behind the barn).
I'll try other things tonight.

Btw, isn't it a better way to stock bales ? It's very instable, and I have bales everywhere around... <_< ... or maybe I use the wrong tool ? I use the front loader for bales on the tractor (can't remember the names)

[Dravere]

there is an auto-loader trailer for square bales, makes stacking them easy as pie.

[Jester]

silage can also be got from fermenting mowed grass, so you can skip the corn planting and harvesting bit, but it's gonna take lots of mowing. don't know how effecient it really turn out to be.

[ExTempus]

Originally posted by Salt:

there is an auto-loader trailer for square bales, makes stacking them easy as pie.

Yes indeed, very usefull, but the problem is just after that for me, when I take them again, one by one, with the front loafder to put them in the mixer... every time the pile goes down... YAYYY BALES EVERYWHERE !!

[Dravere]

lol just grab them gently... the pile will probably fall down but they shouldn't go -everywhere-

[ExTempus]

okay... well, I'll try, thx ;-)

[i3ond]

Silage is most commonly whole corn stalks chopped and then put in a silo and allowed to age. You feed it to the cattle and sometime you mix it with dry grains to add more fat to the animals.
I don't know why you would use a front loader to move the silage. Some farms have augers and conveyors that spread out the silage along a long trough. Other newer farms have that hold the animals. I think those farms ether have a wagon that they fill from a bunker silo that will create rows of silage on the outside of the stalls or maybe a skidloader to move the silage to the trough...