At JSC "Ladna", the harvesting of corn for silage is in full swing. Of the 25 centners of feed units per one conventional head of cattle required for wintering, corn silage can provide up to ten.
At JSC "Ladna", the harvesting of corn for silage is in full swing. Of the 25 centners of feed units per one conventional head of cattle required for wintering, corn silage can provide up to ten. Therefore, this crop is approached with all seriousness in terms of cultivation and harvesting.
In total, the farm has allocated 270 hectares for the queen of the fields, as corn was once called. This year, a very good, one might even say record, harvest has been obtained. According to Vladimir Kudin, the chief agronomist of "Ladna", the year was very favourable. Corn is a very heat-loving plant, and the first half of the summer turned out to be anomalously warm, even hot. Timely top dressing and chemical weeding complemented the natural effect. The stalks shot up, in some places doubling a person's height.
Currently, five units of equipment are involved in silage harvesting. The fodder harvesting combine is operated by Yuri Nikiforov, the green mass is transported by Sergey Bykov, Andrey Traiko, and Alexander Bogdanovich, and Alexander Aryakhin compacts it in the trenches on an "Amkodor". Every day, this team harvests up to ten hectares. Indescribable feelings overwhelm you when you see the whole process. The combine moves through the cornfield, barely visible. Here it approaches, and you can see how the tall stalks disappear into the cutting mechanism, and then the chopped green mass is ejected from the pipe in an even flow. Five to seven minutes, and another trailer is full.
Each hectare of cornfield yields up to 500 centners of green mass. The trench is filled literally in two to three days.
Vasily MATYRKA.
In the photo: Andrey Traiko, Vladimir Kudin, and Yuri Nikiforov.
Photo by the author.