Muddy Corn Chopping

In Lisbon, New York there is a large dairy operation.  Although I live somewhat near the center of operations I know little about it.  However today I happened to be driving past a large field where corn had been growing all summer, and noticed it was being harvested.  Having little else to do I decided to watch for a while.  When I stopped, the corn chopper was driving down the field blowing a stream of the chopped crop into a wagon being pulled by a common John Deere farm tractor.

In the second photo it can easily be noted the wagon is filled to overflowing, and while the chopper sits idle the load is headed back up the field toward a large truck parked on a slight hill.

The third photo shows that the entire wagon box has been hydraulically lifted and is being dumped into the truck box.  The truck driver, having little to do but wait, is standing on the side of the tractor undoubtedly receiving instructions of what to do next.  Meanwhile that chopper, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, remains idle.

In this photo the unloaded wagon box is settling back to its retracted position ready for another load while a second truck pulls into the field.  The chopper is nearly concealed by the red and white truck as it returns to the point in the field where it finished the preceding load.

In this photo the machine has chopped across the back of the field and up the left side about 2/3 of the way.  This has once more filled the wagon which has made its way nearly around the front of the field heading toward the truck for a second time.  Oops, it encounters a mud hole, and spends a couple of minutes pawing its way through the mire.  The chopper awaits action.

Once more the wagon delivers its load into the yet awaiting truck box as a third truck enters from stage right.  With three truck drivers and the chopper driver all accomplishing little much of the time, this is not a smooth operation.

As the chopper and tractor/wagon combo move across the front of the field a third load is nearly full.  Over the top of the wagon another load appears to either be mired in mud, or broken down.  At any rate it is not moving, nor has it moved since I’ve been watching.

Again the chopper sits idle, while the unmoving load in the background does likewise, as the loaded wagon once more plods over to dump its load in the truck.  The loaded wagon again stops moving forward in the apparent mud hole, but once more works its way free in a couple of minutes and continues on its way.

Normally the trucks drive alongside the chopper and are directly filled which is much faster than this operation.  When one truck fills, another takes its place, and an almost continuous stream of corn erupts from the spout for endless hours.  Mother Nature’s recent rains cut the speed of chopping by many times, costing the dairy operations thousands of dollars.