Last week, I wrote about setting up our bagger to harvest our crops and this week, as promised, I’m detailing how we take it down.
There’s a process for every chore on the farm, from feeding to cleaning to milking to harvesting. The rhythm of the seasons and the work that accompanies them are comforting and familiar and, after farming for a number of years, have become second nature to us.
I’m thankful our harvest season is just about coming to a close. We still have standing corn, but that will be combined and stored when it’s dried down sufficiently and ready to go. In the meantime, chopping is done, our silage bags are filled and we have enough. Thank You, Lord, we have enough.
When it’s time to store the bagger for the winter, there are a number of steps we go through, much like when we set it up, only in reverse order. First of all, during filling my husband watches the bag closely. There is red warning tape that appears when the bag is getting close to being completely filled. When the red shows up we know we should cease filling.
When we are completely done chopping and it’s time to take the bagger down for the season, my husband opens up the gauges to release pressure on the two side cables. We hook the skid steer onto the backstop with a clevis hook so that it doesn’t sway as we work with the bagger. Then we release the large hooks that are attached to the cables, which in turn, had held the backstop in place.
Next, we wind up the cables that run alongside the bag as it is filled. My husband monitors one side, I’m on the other, making sure the sturdy, wired cable wraps uniformly onto each drum. He starts the power takeoff to slowly move the cables along. We must keep them taunt, so that they don’t wrap haphazardly.
When that job is done, my husband drives the tractor, which is attached to the bagger, ahead. As he drives, the silage bag gradually falls away from the bagger, leaving a 4- or 5-foot excess behind. My husband leaves the bag open for a day or so, to release gasses that build up during filling. If he did not, there would be a danger the bag could potentially blow up. After the wait period, he seals it until we need to begin feeding out of it.
We then begin to clean out the inside of the bagger, feeding the leftover silage immediately to our outside heifers. After the majority of the feed is out, we literally crawl into the shaft of the bagger to remove every bit of silage we can so that when we need it next season, there is no residue feed leftover. This means we even clean off the forks inside the 9-foot bagger.
After that we attach the backstop, securing it into place at the back of the bagger. Finally, we back it into a corner of the shed to store until we need it next summer. Done! A sweet word.
The rhythm and work of each season ebb and flow, from preparing the land to planting to finally harvesting and then storing our equipment away for the year. We work hand-in-hand with our Heavenly Father, completely depending on Him for direction and guidance, thanking Him each night for another good day, no matter what the day brought. We take care of what we can and then confidently leave the rest to Him.
(“My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:2)
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