By Peter Coyne, Vita Plus dairy service specialist
Ben Franklin said it well.
Having a well-planned corn silage harvest is essential if we want to maximize forage quality for the herd in the next year. On a good day, custom operators chop about 100 acres of corn silage with one chopper. For a 1,000-cow dairy, each day of chopping results in about a month’s worth of corn silage for the milking herd.
As rural populations decrease, farms and harvesting crews will have to be competitive to attract new employees to their teams.
Workforce demographics are rapidly changing, explained Peter Coyne, Vita Plus dairy service specialist, during his presentation at the recent Vita Plus Custom Harvester Meeting. He said more “help wanted” signs are posted now than 1980 and the unemployment rate continues to decrease. Every day in the U.S., 10,000 people turn 65 and exit the workforce, but the same number of people turn 21 every day. That means 10,000 jobs are in transition between someone with years of experience and someone who is brand new.
Posted on February 22nd, 2013 in Forage Foundations
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Riverview LLP , headquartered in Minnesota, milks 45,000 cows at seven different sites. Putting up forage at this scale requires a well-oiled machine.
Andy Hacker oversees trucking, commodities and forage harvesting for Riverview. During his presentation at the Vita Plus Custom Harvester Meeting, he said it all begins with core values.
Values stressed at Riverview include: strong work ethic, spirit of humility, keep it simple, integrity and candor.
Posted on December 4th, 2012 in Forage Foundations
Just as tractors aren’t what they used to be, the custom harvester business has grown more complex. The four gears on the old tractor kept in the corner of the machine shed aren’t enough to meet the needs of your business today.
Gary Sipiorski with Vita Plus helps shift the gears through your custom harvesting operation with today’s modern syncromesh system:
Be in this business because you like it. Be mechanically minded. Relying on repair shops can be costly. Know...
Posted on December 4th, 2012 in Forage Foundations
Dr. Ken Griswold has made a career out of forages as a part of the Penn State Cooperative Extension dairy team. While that does mean he’s an expert in the field, it doesn’t mean he’s immune to the dangers that come with putting up high quality forages.
This past September, Griswold was working in an upright silo and was exposed to silo gas. He already felt sick by the time he got home. That night, after falling asleep in a chair,...
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