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Home > Milk Means More Blog > Harvest, the most wonderful time of the year

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09/07/2018

Harvest, the most wonderful time of the year

Jolene Griffin  |  Dairy Farming, Family Farm

There are a lot of holiday songs claiming Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, but farmers think about things a little bit differently. Don’t get me wrong, we love Christmas too! But on the farm, harvest season is one of the most wonderful times of the year.

I recently heard that more people make resolutions in the fall than they do at the New Year. They see the fall as a time to refresh and refocus, or maybe they see the year winding down and want to make some new habits.

During the fall, Michigan dairy farmers and their families reflect on the spring and summer weather, specifically how it affected the growth of the crops they grew to feed their animals. Starting in late August, they spend long days and weeks harvesting these crops that will become the food for their cows for the next year. As we’ve talked about here and here, harvest is an important time of the year.

I decided to go to the experts at my family’s farm to help me tell you about harvest on our farm. The experts were: Lilly, age 13; Landon, age 9; Levi, age 7; Lexie, age 5; and Lyssa, age 3. These answers were too cute to keep to myself!

https://www.milkmeansmore.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/UDIM_Levi-Video_13.mp4

We “chop” the entire corn plant, including the stalk, the corn cob and leaves to create silage, which contains all sizes of particles and a lot of nutrients. This is chopped in the field and taken by large trucks to our farm.

It actually took about 270 truckloads to bring about seven million pounds of corn silage from our fields to our farm. We will have feed for our cows for the next year. How would you like to gather and store food for an entire year?! It’s pretty efficient!

https://www.milkmeansmore.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/UDIM_Levi-Video_2.mp4

The trucks I mentioned earlier will bring the silage to the farm, where it’s pushed into a big pile and a tractor drives back and forth over it remove all of the air pockets. This keeps the feed fresh for the next year. We then cover the pile with a large plastic tarp to preserve the silage, protect it from the elements and deter wild animals from eating it.

To see more about what happens on the Griffin family farm, visit here!

Jolene Griffin
About the author

Jolene has the honor to share with Michigan’s dairy farmers how the UDIM team works on their behalf to connect consumers to their products, grow sales of dairy foods and share the good stories of the industry, through her role as Director of Industry Relations. As a life-long dairy promoter and consumer, she knows the importance of sharing dairy’s story and helps farmers make personal connections to consumers through social media, presentations and community events. She earned a bachelor's degree in Agriculture and Natural Resources Communication from Michigan State University. Jolene is proud to have started her career on her family’s dairy farm in Hastings, MI, she can be found there often either helping with chores or instilling the passion for dairy onto nine nieces and nephews she adores.

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