When September arrives, chopping season begins. What is chopping in a farming and ranching context, you might ask? It has nothing to do with helicopters or loud motorcycles. For us, chopping is about harvesting feed. And we have our very own company - B&B Choppers - that takes care of this function for Bogle Ltd. and other farms in the Pecos Valley. Interested in learning more about this process? We’ve got everything you need to know.
This practice is called forage harvesting, silage harvesting or chopping, of course. It’s pretty self-explanatory - we send out our harvesting equipment to harvest wheat, corn, sorghum and alfalfa in silage form. And silage is fed to cattle, sheep and other animals that chew cud. Might sound unappetizing to you, but we guarantee they’re happy to chow down. Silage is fermented, not dried, before it makes its way in front of one of our cows as breakfast.
To get the harvest in silage form, it needs to be chopped into small pieces - hence the name “choppers”. Tractors pack the chopped material into piles for it to be covered in plastic and begin the fermentation process.
B&B Choppers handles the harvesting process for us at Bogle Ltd. and we’re so grateful to have them on our team! If you need any help choppin’ on your farm, you know who to call. Until then, we’ll be holding down the fort, preparing tasty silage for our happy cattle.