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The annual rye chopping season was in full swing Saturday as the Schmit Brothers — Paul, Bill and Mike — along with sons Tim, Justin and Jesse worked to harvest and pack rye silage for cattle feed. A forage harvester chops windrowed rye into small pieces and loads it into a waiting truck in a field near Randolph, while a tractor repeatedly drives across the silage pile to tightly pack the chopped rye and force out oxygen, an important step in the fermentation process that preserves the feed. The chopped rye will later ferment into silage used as livestock feed. Farmers often harvest rye in the spring both as a feed source and to allow time for planting another crop later in the growing season. Jeri Schmit | Randolph Times
