Pre-harvest checklist full for Kilgus family

Harvest may be late this year, but livestock producers are finding plenty to do before venturing out in the combine.

Silage harvest for the Kilgus family in Livingston County has been going since late August when they started harvesting silage to put in a bag.

“We did some early corn there at the end of August then a couple of weeks ago, we did our earlage harvest and that’s where a chopper takes the ear and husk and chops it up,” explained Matt Kilgus.

Kilgus is just finishing up his silage pack pile as they chose to chop 110-day corn planted in June so they didn’t have to wait for it to be dry enough to combine this fall.

“Like we are going to face later this fall, it’s just been really spread out.”

Corn chopped earlier in the season was impressive, despite weather conditions during the spring and summer. Both early fields the Kilgus family did were estimated at over 200 bushels per acre.

“We were more than happy with that for the year we’ve had. That was May 20 planted corn,” Kilgus said.

Kilgus expects to see plenty of variability out in the fields this fall and more stressful conditions as they head to their southeastern farms.

Located south of Fairbury, Kilgus Dairy has its own country store known as Kilgus Farmstead where they bottle their own milk and sell locally-raised beef, pork and goat meat. The store also includes cheese, local honey, jams and jellies. The soft serve ice cream always seems to be a popular choice.

“We get many people that like to venture out and sit out on the patio to enjoy some ice cream,” said Kilgus.