❤😊 BEING A PERSON THAT HAS TAKEN CARE OF THE CROP AT THE LE SUEUR COUNTY PIONEER POWER GROUND'S. I CAN SEE THAT A COVER CROP WOULD BE A BIG BENEFIT TO THE SOIL !!!! IN THE END WE TAKE EVERYTHING OFF THE FIELD AND HAVE NOTHING GOING BACK IN THE GROUND AS ORGANIC MATERIAL 😢 IT'S SLIMY WHEN WET AND HARD AS ROCK WHEN DRY!!!❤😊 LOVE THE CHANNEL GUY'S ❤😊
Watching all your videos shows (aside from beautiful scenery!) the practical efficiency of your farm operation. The "human capital" there, with generations and siblings (and probably others as well...) lending a hand in turn...invaluable! Please keep 'em coming (with a prayer for the cameras...) as we sure enjoy watching them!
We do the same and the heifers LOVE it!!! We chop where only our combine dumps out the rear end and get all the husks in one package. I have also round baled wet , not yet dry stalks and wrapped them in a bale wrapper for extra feed to help stretch out our hay supply, when i drop a bale in a round feeder after i take off the plastic, LOOK OUT, they will mob you like you TEEN GALS like you are a ROCK STAR in the concert that night!!!! Smells just like corn silage!!!! Great videos you put out, LOVE THEM!!! Kevin!!
We've been lucky this year in our area, especially getting these stretches of nice drying weather that has allowed us the opportunity to make excellent bedding
I used to make a bunker out of round bales to put chopped stalks in, worked pretty decent but do all round bales now. We sow rye every year but harvest it in the spring makes nice feed if you can put it up right. Great video 👍
Wow what a beautiful view from the top of the feild looking down on the cows on pasture .l run a small market garden farm in Ohio and have been using cover crops the last 3 years and love what they do for the garden beds
@@GierokFarms buckwheat oats cowpeas sunhemp and sudangrass for summer cover crops and fall l use radish and rye with hairy vetch .I have a Amish farm that has a feed mill for non gmo grain who is a Byron seed dealer that does cover crop mixes .A lot of the Amish and Mennonites in my area have small produce farms .l grew up on a dairy farm like you have and Dad farm like you and your dad still do .Picked ear corn for our dairy too.The nice thing about the way you do your corn nothing goes to waste you are using every bit of the corn .lt is so nice to see cows still like l remember ours cows looked like in the 70s ,so glad l found your channel enjoy seeing how your family is still making a go of it on a small dairy keep up the good work .
@@GierokFarms As a kid growing up and you told me l would be using sudan grass as a cover crop ,l would call you crazy it was also a summer feed for the cows .But so much has changed over the years .For my use now it provides quick growth in the hot summer months and is a great weed surpressor and produces alot of green manure for fall graden beds .
we did something like that we used snow fence to make a ring and filled it with the corn elevator worked good We would use the old corn chopper and go the oppsite way as picking
I just wanted to say that I saw a few of these videos on my recommended page and I started watching them and I really enjoy them. I have a channel too I started a while back that I’m working on. I also work on a dairy farm so I can relate to a lot of your videos. They are great videos. New sub!
Don't see many flail choppers any more? Makes good bedding. Cover crops are the very best. Your ground will tell you that the more you use them. If you can(weather) always have something growing on the soil!!! Thanks.
Really enjoying this channel keep up the great work, but please get some PTO guards for your attachments, I winced when I saw you standing on the draw bar with the PTO running. You only get two legs and two arms in this life 😊👍
Great video. We did that up until the 80s, but we just filled the hay wagons up. As we needed it we would fork it into the manure spreader then unloaded that into the back barn. It made very good bedding. Have you guys ever baled small square bales of corn stalks? We did some of that to if the weather was right.
Why do you cut and rake your stalks if you are going to use a flail chopper. We used to fill the main barn and two other livestock buildings using a silage blower. now we just fill the one heifer bar and use round bales for the rest. This is the reason dad really loved his mounted picker, it pushed the stalks under the tractor belly and they went under the wagon (for the most part) without getting run down, then we went out with a 16A JD flail chopper and went to work, could really clean up a field. Spent many cold days behind a heat houser on a 2010 gasser chopping. Used to go out at 4 am on frozen mornings in January and fill the wagons to bed free stalls. Now we chop oat or wheat straw to fill the heifer barn and round bale the stalks.
How do you maintain the quality of that loose bedding and then isn't it a mess getting it to the pens or stalls where you need it? It seems that you have to handle a lot of your hay,forage, and bedding by hand. Do you make sure that the manure and mixed bedding go back to those fields that it came off of to replace the organic matter?
Great use of the corn stalks. Do you ever graze the cover crops in either the autumn or spring to lengthen the grazing period? We have sown Oats and Rye following Fodder Beet to cut in the spring and then turn over to go back into pasture.
This is fascinating from an Irish mans point of view. You chop the corn stalks before raking them, would the harvester not be able to chop them? Here in Ireland it is almost entirely barley straw that is used for bedding, with some wheaten and oaten straw used too, all baled in either round bales or large square bales directly behind the combine. Very interesting. By the way, i love how ye use so much timber for building sheds there, over here it's all steel and concrete. Yours are just so much more appealing from an aesthetic point of view, and also from an animal environment point.
Picking corn, one does not want all the stalks going through the combine, the stalks are too hard on the metal parts inside the machine plus it takes too much power and the stalks maybe too damp and sticky, all one wants is the ear snapped off the stalk by the rollers and pickup chains, fed into the machine shelled and the husks and cobs separated from the kernels as clean and fast as possible. The stalks are still attached to the roots and too long, so chopping makes for smaller pieces to make for softer bedding and more absorbent plus the bedding pack is not so tangled when you need to clean out the barn for fresh bedding.
You mentioned in the first 2021 picking video that one field was conventional tillage and the second next to it was cover cropped. What was the yield difference? The chemical inputs on the conventional field? Many say they have slightly less yield but much more profits with cover crops because they are not paying for chemicals. And hearing orders for next year fertilizer are priced 3x this year's.
Cover crops are the way to go. Helps replace the N macronutrient and saves you from soil erosion. Will you put your forager on it in the spring and make hay insilage? Excellent video!!
I see, you're one of THOSE guys... LOL. The ones who think the roof and cross conveyer on a self unloading wagon is extra capacity! My dad was like that for many years, except it was haylage so that was fun to unload. The wagons got old and started breaking so he finally quit doing it.
Interesting and dusty. Thanks for all the info. I grew up in Pierce County,50-60's small dairy and go back there and through it several times a year. I now live in Minnesota. I saw a lot of what you call cover crops there. Was thinking it to possible be winter wheat. It looks like you answered that for me. I am assuming the cover crop is only for erosion control. It looks like you are in a hilly part of the state, are you along a river there? I know dairy is a hard way to go. Good you have family to share the load. Take care and thanks for the videos.
We have done that before! It turn out way better if you stalk chop it first and leave it for a couple days to dry and then use the fail chopper to harvest it! But yes if it is dry enough you can just run over it one time!
Had some great stalk chopping days in the last week, mild/sunny...you in Richland county?? Looks like driftless area. Get em in so you can get in that tree stand.
They could eat them but they have better food available so they won't, The main purpose is to provide a clean and dry place for them to lay! Thanks for watching Michael from El Paso!
Nice tidy farm. Do you use the corn stalks on the milk cows? We tried it a couple times but every time we used it we would start getting mastitis. It was nice and dry and seemed like good bedding but it wouldn't work for us. We had to use it up in the heifers
Im surprised someone hasn't devised a way to pull a rake right behind the stalk chopper. Since its only bedding precision isn't as critical. I cringed when you were leaning over the PTO as you engaged it.😬
You mean the nightmare dreamed up by Trump Republicans? Farmers that vote for Republicans are cutting their own throats. You just cannot see it because you've gotten used to being lied to. Do Trump Republicans really represent the values of these hard working farmers? Would these guys participate in an attack upon their own capital? Or try to steal an election that was documented to be fair?
❤😊 BEING A PERSON THAT HAS TAKEN CARE OF THE CROP AT THE LE SUEUR COUNTY PIONEER POWER GROUND'S. I CAN SEE THAT A COVER CROP WOULD BE A BIG BENEFIT TO THE SOIL !!!! IN THE END WE TAKE EVERYTHING OFF THE FIELD AND HAVE NOTHING GOING BACK IN THE GROUND AS ORGANIC MATERIAL 😢 IT'S SLIMY WHEN WET AND HARD AS ROCK WHEN DRY!!!❤😊 LOVE THE CHANNEL GUY'S ❤😊
At the farm in the fall we make around 300 round bales of Corn 🌽 stalks 😅
I've heard more and more about cover crops !!!! I think it's a GOOD IDEA
In dealing with a Show grounds where we take all the straw off the field and sell it and have nothing to plow back into the ground !
You guys make brilliant videos with all the different camers positions, many thanks for taking the time to do that and sharing them
Watching all your videos shows (aside from beautiful scenery!) the practical efficiency of your farm operation. The "human capital" there, with generations and siblings (and probably others as well...) lending a hand in turn...invaluable! Please keep 'em coming (with a prayer for the cameras...) as we sure enjoy watching them!
Really love seeing how nothing goes to waste.
Thank you Pete!
We do the same and the heifers LOVE it!!! We chop where only our combine dumps out the rear end and get all the husks in one package. I have also round baled wet , not yet dry stalks and wrapped them in a bale wrapper for extra feed to help stretch out our hay supply, when i drop a bale in a round feeder after i take off the plastic, LOOK OUT, they will mob you like you TEEN GALS like you are a ROCK STAR in the concert that night!!!! Smells just like corn silage!!!! Great videos you put out, LOVE THEM!!! Kevin!!
Great videos. They seem to take us back in time when life was a little less hectic.
They sure do! Thanks For Watching!
Couldn’t agree more. What a beautiful place. Takes me back to my grandparents’ farm
I think you had less than 100 subs when I found your channel. Look at you now. On to 10K subs, congrats.
It sure has been growing! Thanks for being there since the beginning Kevin!
Cover crop is the best. Less erosion with spring rain and rin off. Stored nutrients waiting to be utilized.
Did not know those rolabar rakes would rake stalks. always v rakes around here. now i know i could rake stalks with my old 256
And all that soil in the bedding ends up back on the fields, plus amenities. Genus.
Really enjoy your video!! Spent every summer on a dairy farm, much like yours. Was the best times of life. Was never ready to leave.
Thank You Scott I'm glad you enjoy the videos!
Nothing beats chopped DRY cornstalks for bedding in cattle sheds !
Agreed!
A good Hydrostatic drive tractor would be great for unloading those wagons full of bedding
This is my new favorite channel. Thanks!!
I'm Glad to hear Thank You for Watching!
Your a natural at picking out GREAT camera angles. 👍🏾😀 nice to see the girls grazing in the pastures .
Thanks Casey!
Nice to see the ol'M doing it's keep!
agreed!
The N.H. 38. We owned one, a versitale chopper. It could even mow hay if you opened the back door , behind the flails. Used like a haybine.
That sounds really cool!
You guys have a knack for finding the best places to tuck a camera.
Love those old Ms they never quit.
We've been lucky this year in our area, especially getting these stretches of nice drying weather that has allowed us the opportunity to make excellent bedding
Agreed it has been a really good fall!
Interesting. Thanks for the video. 🇺🇸
Thanks for watching!
We used a blower to put the stalks in part of the hay mow. Dust was CRAZY. Took a day just to settle down.
Whoa have not seen a flail chopper in quite some time. Used to use one in the 70s to 'green chop'. Great videos. Look forward to watching more.
Thank you!
Cover crops and manure-the answer to high fertilizer prices. As brown as your pastures look you should be grazing the lush cover crops.
I used to make a bunker out of round bales to put chopped stalks in, worked pretty decent but do all round bales now. We sow rye every year but harvest it in the spring makes nice feed if you can put it up right. Great video 👍
Was hoping for another video, shout out from Manitoba Canada.
Glad we could deliver! Welcome! are all the crops off up there yet!
Wow what a beautiful view from the top of the feild looking down on the cows on pasture .l run a small market garden farm in Ohio and have been using cover crops the last 3 years and love what they do for the garden beds
That's awesome what kind of cover crops do you use!
@@GierokFarms buckwheat oats cowpeas sunhemp and sudangrass for summer cover crops and fall l use radish and rye with hairy vetch .I have a Amish farm that has a feed mill for non gmo grain who is a Byron seed dealer that does cover crop mixes .A lot of the Amish and Mennonites in my area have small produce farms .l grew up on a dairy farm like you have and Dad farm like you and your dad still do .Picked ear corn for our dairy too.The nice thing about the way you do your corn nothing goes to waste you are using every bit of the corn .lt is so nice to see cows still like l remember ours cows looked like in the 70s ,so glad l found your channel enjoy seeing how your family is still making a go of it on a small dairy keep up the good work .
@@brucelinebaugh1380 What do you think of Sudan grass and thank you!
@@GierokFarms As a kid growing up and you told me l would be using sudan grass as a cover crop ,l would call you crazy it was also a summer feed for the cows .But so much has changed over the years .For my use now it provides quick growth in the hot summer months and is a great weed surpressor and produces alot of green manure for fall graden beds .
Great example of chopping stalks. That was the way before round balers.
Great video. Thanks
I've just started your videos and I think they are some of the best yet! Here in Duluth we don't see much of this kind of thing.
I like how you make use of everything
Makes very good bedding I found it better the way you do it than round bales very nice video
Cover crop is cool...keeps erosion down too.
Never seen anyone but stover in a silage wagon and pile it we just found bail it down we’re Iam at thanks very interesting 🌽👍🇺🇸
Nice, thank you!
we did something like that we used snow fence to make a ring and filled it with the corn elevator worked good We would use the old corn chopper and go the oppsite way as picking
All good ideas!
Makes sense to me. I think chopped like that would make better bedding in many ways.
It sure keeps it drier! but both ways are nice!
Cool to see a M out there working...👍😃
Cover crops come in handy
Agreed!
I just wanted to say that I saw a few of these videos on my recommended page and I started watching them and I really enjoy them. I have a channel too I started a while back that I’m working on. I also work on a dairy farm so I can relate to a lot of your videos. They are great videos. New sub!
Welcome to the channel and thanks for watching, I like you Oliver! Keep up the good work!
@@GierokFarms thank you! I like your tractors as well they do a good job
Recently found your channel . Love all your videos. Great to see the family working together.
Awesome video !!
Thank You Noah!
I put in oats this fall for a cover crop but it was a failure due to the wet warm weather, weeds overtook them in a matter of weeks.
Don't see many flail choppers any more? Makes good bedding. Cover crops are the very best. Your ground will tell you that the more you use them. If you can(weather) always have something growing on the soil!!! Thanks.
We used to small square alot of ours.
We used to small square bale them too but boy the mice love those bales, chew the strings in half too!
If u could get an old Hesston stacker for those stocks
Really enjoying this channel keep up the great work, but please get some PTO guards for your attachments, I winced when I saw you standing on the draw bar with the PTO running. You only get two legs and two arms in this life 😊👍
Have you ever chopped the stocks directly with the flail chopper? That’s what we used to do, two rows at a time.
Great video. We did that up until the 80s, but we just filled the hay wagons up. As we needed it we would fork it into the manure spreader then unloaded that into the back barn. It made very good bedding. Have you guys ever baled small square bales of corn stalks? We did some of that to if the weather was right.
Nice editing work and as usual great content. Love the cover crops!
Cover crops are the way to go.
Agreed!
Why do you cut and rake your stalks if you are going to use a flail chopper. We used to fill the main barn and two other livestock buildings using a silage blower. now we just fill the one heifer bar and use round bales for the rest.
This is the reason dad really loved his mounted picker, it pushed the stalks under the tractor belly and they went under the wagon (for the most part) without getting run down, then we went out with a 16A JD flail chopper and went to work, could really clean up a field. Spent many cold days behind a heat houser on a 2010 gasser chopping. Used to go out at 4 am on frozen mornings in January and fill the wagons to bed free stalls. Now we chop oat or wheat straw to fill the heifer barn and round bale the stalks.
How do you maintain the quality of that loose bedding and then isn't it a mess getting it to the pens or stalls where you need it? It seems that you have to handle a lot of your hay,forage, and bedding by hand. Do you make sure that the manure and mixed bedding go back to those fields that it came off of to replace the organic matter?
Great use of the corn stalks. Do you ever graze the cover crops in either the autumn or spring to lengthen the grazing period?
We have sown Oats and Rye following Fodder Beet to cut in the spring and then turn over to go back into pasture.
This is fascinating from an Irish mans point of view. You chop the corn stalks before raking them, would the harvester not be able to chop them? Here in Ireland it is almost entirely barley straw that is used for bedding, with some wheaten and oaten straw used too, all baled in either round bales or large square bales directly behind the combine. Very interesting.
By the way, i love how ye use so much timber for building sheds there, over here it's all steel and concrete. Yours are just so much more appealing from an aesthetic point of view, and also from an animal environment point.
Picking corn, one does not want all the stalks going through the combine, the stalks are too hard on the metal parts inside the machine plus it takes too much power and the stalks maybe too damp and sticky, all one wants is the ear snapped off the stalk by the rollers and pickup chains, fed into the machine shelled and the husks and cobs separated from the kernels as clean and fast as possible. The stalks are still attached to the roots and too long, so chopping makes for smaller pieces to make for softer bedding and more absorbent plus the bedding pack is not so tangled when you need to clean out the barn for fresh bedding.
@@frankdeegan8974 Thanks, very interesting.
You mentioned in the first 2021 picking video that one field was conventional tillage and the second next to it was cover cropped. What was the yield difference? The chemical inputs on the conventional field? Many say they have slightly less yield but much more profits with cover crops because they are not paying for chemicals. And hearing orders for next year fertilizer are priced 3x this year's.
We like cover crops, we have only done it on our corn on corn ground, for sure less fret expense, if tillage doesn't kill it then you have to spray!
Is the farm in Wisconsin? After all, isn't that where milk comes from?
Could you accomplish the same if you used just one flail chopper instead of using two? It seems that there wouldn't be much left after that.
Cover crops are the way to go. Helps replace the N macronutrient and saves you from soil erosion. Will you put your forager on it in the spring and make hay insilage? Excellent video!!
I see, you're one of THOSE guys... LOL. The ones who think the roof and cross conveyer on a self unloading wagon is extra capacity! My dad was like that for many years, except it was haylage so that was fun to unload. The wagons got old and started breaking so he finally quit doing it.
Gotta make every load count lol
Interesting and dusty. Thanks for all the info. I grew up in Pierce County,50-60's small dairy and go back there and through it several times a year. I now live in Minnesota. I saw a lot of what you call cover crops there. Was thinking it to possible be winter wheat. It looks like you answered that for me. I am assuming the cover crop is only for erosion control. It looks like you are in a hilly part of the state, are you along a river there? I know dairy is a hard way to go. Good you have family to share the load. Take care and thanks for the videos.
Thank You for watching! ya the cover crops help with erosion. It also helps with retain nutrients and acts like a green manure!
We plant barley and wheat as cover crops what number is your flaw chopper we have a 36
does that pick up lotta rocks through chopper
no not really
We plant triticale and rye grass together
U can't cut ur fall rye for feed ?
Is there an option/feature on the wagons for unloading out the back?
Aren't the cornstoks full of soil.
And how does the copper cop whit that.
If you lower it all the way down you can pick up a lot of dirt! Corn stalks are very hard on equipment!
radish cover crops. look into it
Do you guys ever use the REX in the shed.
Aren't you just chopping the cornstalks twice? Couldn't you just chop the stalks directly with the New Holland chopper?
We have done that before! It turn out way better if you stalk chop it first and leave it for a couple days to dry and then use the fail chopper to harvest it! But yes if it is dry enough you can just run over it one time!
@@GierokFarms I had the same question and you just answered it. Love your videos!!
?
Had some great stalk chopping days in the last week, mild/sunny...you in Richland county?? Looks like driftless area. Get em in so you can get in that tree stand.
The weather was great for sure. Agreed the rut is on!
Do you cover the corn stalks with a plastic cover? It would seem like the pile getting wet would not be good bedding.
No we don't' it would cause it to heat and ferment! If you pile it right water runs off more than soaks in!
Why wouldn't you chop the oats rye mix in the spring? It would be good feed and if nothing else good dry cow heifer feed
We have thought about it, Both ways a great way, we just dig it under to improve our soil health and increase fertility!
@@GierokFarms Y'all know what works for you. we usually chop it then kill the stubble and replant. great looking operation
Why wouldn't u let the cows in to graze it in the spring
So do you have like 34 go pros or do you stop and move it every two minutes?
Love the vids, keep up the great work!
Will the cows eat the chopped corn stalks or is it inedible? Best regards from El Paso, TX
They could eat them but they have better food available so they won't, The main purpose is to provide a clean and dry place for them to lay! Thanks for watching Michael from El Paso!
Love your videos but please please please put a safety guard on that pto !!!
Winter wheat cover crop
Does that pile get tarped?
Are you able to mow those cow pastures? Some of it looks like it would be tough to get a tractor on.
No it doesn't we use that pile up fast! Most of it dose get mowed you would be surprised if you knew where that 7405 and my father have been! LOL
I guess we need a video of your dad mowing some wicked slopes…..
Keep up the good work!
@@wilscooley3083 Another good video idea!
I don’t envy the amount of fence you have to care for
Do you use much straw? Loved the corn picking videos
Yes we use oat and wheat straw!
Nice tidy farm. Do you use the corn stalks on the milk cows? We tried it a couple times but every time we used it we would start getting mastitis. It was nice and dry and seemed like good bedding but it wouldn't work for us. We had to use it up in the heifers
How many acres do you farm
256 New Holland rake?
I bought one new in mid 70's.
Fromelt Implement Rice MN
$1100
I wonder what they are worth today?
Lets go Brandon!!!!!!!!
Im surprised someone hasn't devised a way to pull a rake right behind the stalk chopper. Since its only bedding precision isn't as critical.
I cringed when you were leaning over the PTO as you engaged it.😬
sorry I made you cringe!
The cover crop will SAVE you some big $'s with price of fertilizer. Hopefully the country's nightmare will be ending after fall elections 2022. 👍💪🙏
You mean the nightmare dreamed up by Trump Republicans? Farmers that vote for Republicans are cutting their own throats. You just cannot see it because you've gotten used to being lied to. Do Trump Republicans really represent the values of these hard working farmers? Would these guys participate in an attack upon their own capital? Or try to steal an election that was documented to be fair?