This is a good model for how I'd like a lot of this book to look: heavily and clearly illustrated, with simple instructions in plain, straightforward language that even people of a low educational level can understand. Actually, I think this site comes from an elementary school in England, so it's no surprise that it looks like you could cut it up and make a children's picture book out of it.

Don't click if you don't want to see lots and lots of images, but city folk particularly may be interested to see...

Silage making at Hall Farm...

Silage is like pickled grass, it is made during the summer and then kept to feed the animals in the winter. A lot of hard work is involved in making it....

The grass is cut using a large mower mounted on a tractor. Once cut, the grass falls into rows on the ground. It is left to dry for 6 to 18 hours, depending on the weather. The grass stems are still full length, up to 45cm long.

A second tractor uses a rake to push three rows of grass into one big row to make it easier for the forage harvester to pick it all up.

 

The forage harvester picks up the grass and chops it into short lengths before before blowing the cut grass up the spout and into the trailers. The driver of the forage harvester must concentrate on picking up all the grass and not wasting any. The driver of the tractor pulling the trailer has to steer in the right place and at the same speed as the forage harvester so that all lands inside the trailer, in windy weather this is very difficult!! Most of the time he will be looking over his shoulder to see what is happening in his trailer.

When the trailers are full they return to the farm. The grass is tipped into the yard to form a massive pile. To make this quicker the trailers have a special fastening system and can be opened and closed from the tractor cab. This means the drivers do not have to get out.

Then one of the workers picks up the grass with a big rake on the front of his machine.

He uses the big rake to carry the grass to where he wants it, so that he can shape the silage clamp.

To make sure the silage pickles into a nice feed for the cows, all the air has to be squashed out of the pile of grass by driving tractors over it. If there is any air left in the pile it will go mouldy instead of pickling. The cows do not like it when it is mouldy and it can even make them ill.

Once the air has been removed they are left with a smooth pile of grass. The drivers must be very careful as they could tip their tractors over if they build the slope too steep.

   

To make sure the air stays out, the pile is covered in plastic.            Tyres are then placed on top of the plastic to stop it blowing away.

The finished silage clamp.

The fields where the grass was cut are left to grow again. More grass will be cut for the cows in July. The grass will be put on top of the this silage. This means the plastic and the tyres will have to be taken off - HARD WORK!!!

http://learningat.ke7.org.uk/ecoweb/new/silage_making_at_hall_farm.htm

This is what silos are for, by the way. Not everyone dumps a pile on the ground and covers it with plastic and "tyres." Silos, either the big towers we usually associate with the word, or horizontal ones (sort of like big swimming pools with or without a roof), allow more air to be excluded from the silage.

Just by chance, I happened to come upon this article on small holder ("homestead") silage making in Thailand. I didn't even know they grew corn in Thailand, let alone raised dairy cows. Anyway, they said the farmers there hadn't been making silage--cut forage crops chopped up and packed tightly to ferment for animal feed--because it was perceived as being too complicated. I share that perception, so I read on. It said they demonstrated a variety of techniques, and the second-most popular method was making it in plastic buckets. Wow. Is there any homestead chore that can not be resolved with plastic buckets? I seriously think they deserve their own chapter, if not their own book.

I've used plastic buckets for hauling water, hauling soil, gathering nuts, gleaning corn, and collecting rocks. I've mixed concrete and tile grout in them. I've used them as toolboxes, stools, and step ladders (I wouldn't advise others to try that last one, but if you do, keep your feet out toward the edges where it's stronger). They can be used as airtight, watertight, bug-free containers for storing feed, seeds, cement, or anything else you need to keep dry. I've tanned furs and deer hide in plastic buckets. I've used a plastic bucket to make a fermented bait out of apples and bannanas for catching raccoons...wait...no, that was a plastic container with a screw-on top, also an incredibly useful item. We buy big containers of pretzels in them and use the containers to store flour and sugar and such. But the buckets! I've grown plants in plastic buckets. I used buckets to make cubbies for 110 bodygrip traps. I tried using one as a nest box, but the girls preferred sitting on top of it. In a perfect world, they'd be fire proof and there'd be a way to seal up holes or cuts when you don't need them anymore and want to return the buckets to use as airtight/watertight vessels. A thousand years from now, some archaeologist is going to find a sunken barge on the bottom of a river loaded down with plastic buckets full of cargo.