|
nw NC | I planted a few acres of wheat for the silo. I mixed some hairy vetch seed with the wheat as I filled the drill seed box. Planted Saturday after Thanksgiving using a rental no-till drill (noticeably worn). Lots of rain (too wet) all last fall and winter. Some wheat drowned out in spots that stayed overly saturated all winter. Turned out that wheat was a short variety and was bearded. Normally like to cut wheat for the silo the first week of May but weather did not cooperate. Got started May 15 and 16 then more rain. Resumed harvest yesterday afternoon (May 24). Wheat now is filling the heads, I guess it is what you could call milk stage for the grain. Vetch is blooming and growing profusely. I mow enough for two loads, chop them and blow into silo, repeat. Moisture is just right for the silo that way. Also mowing and chopping grass strips , field borders and some grassland that has lots of annual rye-grass in it. Get a half load of grass and half load of wheat/vetch so it blends as unloaded. What I chopped last week and fed from the silo certainly had a good aroma to it. Cattle really ate it. Making grass and wheat silage can be a bad news-good news deal. Bad news is it gets too old quickly for best nutrient content if there are rain delays. Good news is there will be more of it.
Edited by WJKEIGER 5/25/2016 21:25
 (001 (Medium).JPG)
 (005 (Medium).JPG)
Attachments
----------------
 001 (Medium).JPG (227KB - 67 downloads)
005 (Medium).JPG (195KB - 65 downloads)
| |
|
Chopping wheat/vetch plus mixed grasses for the silo
