Wood chipper for corn?

[farmlifeusa]

Anybody know if I could use a wood chipper to make silage for cows?

[agmantoo]

Other than being rather slow if you are going to make a lot of silage, I do not see why not. I have seen a silage chopper used to shred tree trimmings which would be just the reverse.

[Callieslamb]

I saw a herd of cattle being pastured in a corn field a month ago while driving west. the herd was going after those stalks with relish. I also saw bales of corn stalks being fed. Made me wish I had a field of corn stalks!

[copperhead46]

I would be afraid it would gum it up, depending on how much moisture is still in the stalks. Otherwise, it should work, might not chop it up as small as you want, but should work for small batches.

[Carol K]

Yes, I used my cub wood chipper all the time to do just that. The cows would come running when they heard it fire up. I fed it fresh when I chipped it.

Carol

[francismilker]

Works pretty good!

[springvalley]

I have thought about this the better part of the day, Then I went to the farm store to get some stuff, and there right inside the door sat this brand new chipper. It sure was prudy, all red and shiny. Then I started looking it over, man sure would take a spell to get much out of it. Then I saw the price tag, 800 bucks, now I know I could go to a farm auction and buy a used field corn chopper for less than the chipper. I guess if you allready have one use it, I`m sure it will do the job, but I have other things to do than chop corn all day. Thanks Marc.

[francismilker]

The key to using one is to fashion your own hopper to fit on top of it to let the corn stalks/ears feed down with gravity with a little poking once in a while to keep it feeding properly.

[sammyd]

It will work but slowly.
Made a few bags of silage that way.

[farmlifeusa]

Thank you all. Next question. What would be the best way to store the siliage for later use. I'm talking small scale here.!/2 acre to 1 acreof corn. 55 gal drums, contractor grade trash bags????

[springvalley]

You know what, I have a stationary silage cutter and a corn binder, I think I`ll start hiring out. We had a research farm near us would experiment with different preservatives on silage, and they would use barrels. But man that is going to be alot of barrels. How many cows do you have? Thanks Marc

[sammyd]

For corn silage I chop it into a big knockdown plastic pallet. Then I fork into left over plastic feed bags. I pound them tamp them then pound them some more to get them packed very tight. Then I place the feed bag in a regular garbage bag and suck all the air out with an old vacuum cleaner. It will shrink down to almost half size.. Twist and tape the end and stack somewhere that is safe from rats and mice or you'll have rotten feed.
With haylage I skip the feed bag step.
I thought of barrels but was afraid they'd freeze solid and I wouldn't be able to get the feed out.
I've seen some stuff online about drums but usually they have a large hydraulic stuffer to exclude the air. That will be the hardest and most important part of the whole operation.

I stepped things up a bit and this is what I use at the moment. You can just see the corner of the knockdown pallet behind the chopper. We did about half an acre last fall. And I use this to chop bedding for the goats as well.

[springvalley]

Hey Sam , by the way, how much did you have to pay for the chopper? just wondering, you don`t have to tell us if you don`t want to. Thanks Marc.

[sammyd]

300 bucks. Buddy of mine was using to chop his straw bales for bedding. The spout isn't movable anymore and he had 3 of the knives out for a coarser chop. No heads.
But it does what I need it to do after I put the knives back in it.

[Oakshire_Farm]

I have made silage in heavy duty trash bags. It worked pretty well, I would mow the lawn, dump the clippings into the bags, swish the bags to get all the air out and seal with a zip tie. Left them laying in the sun along the side of the barn. After a good month I would drag one out into the barn and cut it open, the cows LOVED it! Not sure if it would work with corn though???