Annual event: Corn harvested for silage

By LORI COPE | East Texas Edition

A corn crop in Delta County is chopped into silage that will be used in feed rations at area dairies and feedyards. -- Staff photo by Cope

July 20, 2004 -- It's corn harvesting time again in Northeast Texas, which means drivers often share the road with trucks carrying a light-colored, fluffy substance that resembles sawdust. But the substance is not a wood byproduct; it's corn that has been chopped as silage, and the silage is used in dairy and beef cow feed rations.

The silage trucks, often seen in caravans on the roadways, travel between the corn fields where they are loaded and a dairy or feedyard where the forage is unloaded.

In the field, a truck runs beside a harvester. Together, they move through the corn field; the harvester cutting and blowing the chopped plant into the truck's high-walled bed.

In Delta County, a crew of custom harvesters from Muleshoe were busy in a corn field on July 14. County Line Services' trucks were lined up at the edge of a field near Lake Creek, awaiting their turn to run beside the harvester and catch their next load.

"These trucks are taking the silage to a feedyard up the road," said County Line Services owner David Pitcock. "Then tomorrow we'll cut some that will go to a dairy."

Pitcock, who's been in the silage business for 36 years, said his crew travels from jobs in Muleshoe through Wichita Falls, to Delta and Lamar counties, plus some in Oklahoma. Pitcock said they harvest about 7,000 or 8,000 acres of corn per year.

Mike Morrow, who is the Extension agent serving Lamar and Delta counties, said Delta County had about 1,000 acres of corn that went for silage last year, and about 2,500 acres of corn that was harvested for grain.

"I expect the numbers to be about the same for this year, too," he said.

Morrow pointed out Delta County farmers are involved with wheat, corn, soybeans, sorghum, cotton, and hay production.

With significant rainfall this spring and earlier this summer, planting and harvesting have been affected in the county, and the region.

Pitcock said, despite the rainfall, his crew of about 12 (including two Australians who were hired through an Oklahoma employment agency) were not behind schedule.

Slow-moving farm equipment and trucks can put motorists behind schedule, but experts advise citizens to cooperate with the on-the-road farmers and remain safe.