Sightseeing on a working road trip?

[woodland]

Thread hijack warning - funny story about our time in Vermilion:

We drove past this shiny new motel, the "Super 8" and on down to the stockyards where Rusty Stalwick met us and showed us around. he asked if we had a place to stay and I said not yet but we came past a new looking motel we might try.

He said, I'll book a room for you there, I own part of it - or something like that. I looked at that cowboy and thought okay...?

Rusty gets on the phone and gets it done but when they asked for a name for the reservation he has trouble spelling my name. He says just book it, they'll be over.

Nope, the front desk wasn't having any of that - they NEEDED A PROPER NAME and proceed to push him hard to get it right.

Finally when he's all finished and thoroughly exasperated, Rusty says, "They have no right to talk to me like that. I OWN the damn place."

His facial expression - it was really hard not to bust out laughing, after what he'd done for us...

Talk about good food - the boys ordered up pancakes - they came stacked high and hanging over the sides of their plates and were about 1/4 eaten when they ran out of room, and these were young farm boys.

I ordered a steak. When it came, they practically needed a cart to haul the thing over and 2 men and a boy to put it on the table.. Top of the line and you bet I finished it. Then a nap and back to the pool...

It was one of the best times we ever had on a road trip.

It's those experiences that one looks back at and then realizes that the best part of a lifetime of farming isn't the bank account or the things accumulated, but the amazing variety of people and experiences that one has had the exceptional privilege of enjoying...

I hope you will have the same reflections on your trip over the coming years.

I second your thoughts of people and experiences being the best part of this industry/ calling that we are part of. My 4 and 6 year old kids have been so mature today while we were at the hospital with my grandma who is in with pneumonia with her kidneys shutting down and doesn’t have much time left. They’ve experienced more life and death of animals and pets than most will through a lifetime and I think they’re better for it. It’s interesting how the kids already know what they want to do as well when they finish school. My daughter wants to be a vet and we were able to point out in Saskatoon where she’d be going to school on our way home the other day. Our son wants to be a “bale farmer” and has so many things figured out already. They already know where different fields are and what to feed the cows and what not. I know I sure cherish the time we get together on trips and tractor time since it’s getting to be less as school consumes more and more time.

I love what I do and who I get to do it with 90% of the time. Who could ask for anything more😎

[woodland]

What's the advantage of what you've bought over the likes of a Schuler bunk feeder like we use? It makes a reasonable job of mixing in pellets etc if you need to. Just layer them in while filling.

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We’re feeding about 50 Tons of silage a day and lots of it gets fed in fields a mile away from the pit. This wagon, our old one, and our TMR are about 900 cubic feet each so the biggest schuler would need four loads to my one. I find it much easier to hook up a four wheel wagon compared to a two wheel cart since there’s no jack to crank or sink in the mud. Currently have the bred heifers and skinny cows at some land 15 miles from home where there’s a two year old silage pile we’re feeding so a tractor and wagon stays there which complicates things as well.

[woodland]

I was wondering the same thing.
I'm guessing the new wagon has a considerable size advantage over the schuler, I believe they are feeding 400+ cows plus backgrounder? Could be a lot of trips with the little Schuler.

Is the Miller wagon built to handle packed silage(especially t, it is much more dense than what it was intended for?

There’s 625 expectant mothers here......... anybody looking for something to do in about 5 weeks or so😉

We fluff the silage before putting it in the wagon and they seem to handle it just fine. It’s the frozen lumps that do the damage to everything. Just cleaned up a four year old pit and after this cold February the top 12-18 inches got set to the side as it was froze solid to the plastic and the rotten straw on top. Any lumps bigger than a basketball really wreak havoc and sometimes need to chop them out of the beaters with an axe which is as fun as it sounds.