You kinda need to know what happens with the Silage once it leaves the field!
They pile it into huge piles. Big enough for these huge tractors to drive across.
In the background you can see another pile of silage that has been covered with tarps and then tires to keep the tarps from blowing, after the silage has been salted to preserve it.
Then they use it as an ingredient in the feed that the cows at Collier Dairy eat. Other ingredients include ground corn and hay.
This is the mixer.
And these are the cows who get to eat the mixture.
In the milking parlor.
The udders are cleaned with a disinfectant before they are inserted into the milking machine.
Ready for the milking.
This is the top side of the milking parlor. After a couple of trips into the parlor the cows just learn the routine and know where to go and what to do.
And yes, the floor is slick!
The milk never touches human hands. It goes directly into huge cold storage containers and then is pumped into trucks to be taken for pasteurization.
Farmers and the Dairy man. Will Collier (with his back to us), Scott Crenweldge, and Shawn (my farmer).
The nursery. The cows are impregnated and then the calves are raised to either be dairy cows or are used for food for me and you, or are used for roping calves, depending what they look like they might be capable of.
The mixer is emptied by the pens where the cows wait for their turn to be milked.
Waiting in the shade for their turn in the milking parlor.
So thats what happens to the Silage. It starts out on a farm under an irrigation pivot and ends up in a cow and then in her milk. Thank you Will Collier for a little time spent at the dairy.
