October 23, 2008: Shucklage
Not everyone works in a cubicle! :headshake Part of my yearly work load is to put up feed for the year for our cows. This is what is called shucklage. This stuff used to be the waste product of seed corn production until some realized it makes a high quality cheap feed. We were early converts.
http://i414.photobucket.com/albums/p...shucktruck.jpg The trucks are first filled with picked ear corn and taken to the Pioneer plant where the majority of the seed corn kernels are "shucked" by a special machine. The leftover product of shucks and corn has an added innoculant {fermentation product} and is sold as shucklage for a cheap feed source. It runs about $14 a ton. We feed around a ton a day, they usually bring us around 500 ton. 30 or more trucks will bring this "shucklage" to our farm. Once it gets here it has to be pushed into a pile like a huge loaf of bread and it is run over and compressed. Finally thousands of gallons of water are added to the top to assure fermentation. My husband is driving the payloader I run the bobcat! ;) http://i414.photobucket.com/albums/p.../scoopload.jpg |
How do you unload the truck? Is there something inside pushing it out?
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They have like a conveyor belt system and the truck drivers do the unloading. Very kewl and noisy!
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To compare the cost of hay which has less protein than shucklage; a large round bale of hay is $60-$80 we would need to feed one bale a day and supplement corn @ $4 a bushel @ 2 per day and we only have 30 cows!
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You look like you're well-bundled on a clear day in October. How far north are you?
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And the cows eat that stuff. Amazing.
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It was about 30 some degrees for awhile in the morning and the wind was vicious yesterday! I am in northern Indiana. |
I think that's called a walking-floor trailer.
http://www.wilkensmfg.com/2008%20Wil...ck-trailer.png |
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Well howdy neighbor!:) |
They're also known as live-bottom trailers. We used those in Wyoming at the wood pellet manufacturing plant to offload unprocessed sawdust from the sawmills. They're kinda slow, but much easier than using a shovel as you might imagine.
http://www.troutriverindustries.ca/p...ction=Capacity |
Cattle love anything to do with corn. I know my dad always gives his corn shucks to the his cows, so it doesn't surprise me that they'd market the commercial quantities as feed.
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I looked at the last trailer and they are "walking trailers"! They unload in 15 min or less.
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In Central California, across the road from where I work there is a David and Son's Sunflower Seed Packaging plant. The trucks of bulk seeds come in, get unhooked from the tractors, hoisted up on one end with a giant crane and the seeds come sliding out! Kind of weird looking, but much simpler than a truck with a built in conveyor belt. Maybe because the sunflower seeds are very light weight, a whole truck is easy to lift?
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