"Happy as a termite in a lumber mill" was the perfect description of the dairy farmers this week when chopping sorghum and hauling it to the silo. Planted in late June with only a hope of rain during a drought, this field is proof of a dairy farmer's faith and determination. It was exciting to see the chopper make the first round in the field and watch the truck fill up with chopped green feed that will become part of the nutritious diet for our dairy cows.
After the sorghum is cut and hauled to the pit silo, it is packed down with a tractor and then allowed to ferment. The fermentation process changes the sorghum to silage. Samples of the silage will be analyzed to provide nutrition information that will be used by our dairy nutritionist to formulate a balanced diet for our cows.
While our pastures turned brown and other crops burned up in this season of drought, this sorghum field held its own and continued to grow in spite of the dry conditions. Even the sorghum won't yield as much as in a normal year and is less mature than we would like, we feel fortunate to have a crop to harvest.
Harvesting a crop is truly a celebration for us in this year of drought!
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