Gotta watch your step climbing a silo!

View from the top of our 60' silo today

Just remember....you ain't no bird.

I seen the neighbors place upside down once from that high . I looked inside and a pigeon was headed out ! Don't know what one scared me more .lol

reminds me of climbing the derrick on oil rigs. but you better have your safety harness on and retractable line and easy rider hooked to you. no short cuts nowadays. OHS would have a heart attack watching you.

Worked out as a kid , and one of my jobs at silo filling time , was to climb the 60 foot silo near the end of the day , and see how full it was . This was no problem for me , I could go up. One day while filling, it turned very windy , and by the end of the day really blowing hard , storm coming in. I had to go up and look , didn't want to plug the blower pipes. So up I went . Got to the top reached up , and folded the platform back , and went to climb through to stand on the platform , only to have the wind blow it down on to the top of my head as I climbed up. I saw stars and went weak in the knees . All I could do was cling there for a while , and try to get over it, sure didn't want to let go ! We had no safety harness , and I was only 16, and probably wouldn't have been smart enough to wear it if we did .
I have NO tower silos ! In too many ways they are death traps, from falls to silo gas , they just aren't worth the risk and cost to buy and maintain . Most dairys near me , including myself have torn down towers , and gone to bunker silos. Always liked the view though , and they do look pretty on a farmstead.
Too often now they stand like a tomb stone beside the ruin of a falling down dairy barn . Just a sad reminder of a once prosperous farm . Bruce

Been there done that,the one beside it has been empty for 3 years now,I refuse to let my kids go up even the 18 yr old. The unloaders shot on the other one ant there's no way in heck were spending 20 grand on a new one only to have to climb it for 15 more years. We put up a shale instead. Still have silo quality feed no chopping ice climbing or dragging parts up or forking the top off. Hate them.

I used to do repairs on silos that were up to 150 ft tall at the concrete plant,not too bad unless it was real windy or ice on everything.

Yikes now that's up there

I used to be able to climb to heights like that, but can't do it anymore. If it's taller than corn, I ain't going there.

I bought a farm in the early 90's that had a newer 20 x 80 silo on it. I climbed the outside just to get some pictures, later my brother bought the place and used the silo. I made many trips up it from the inside working on the unloader one year. He finally quit using it and went to bags about 10 years ago.

Thanks for the look down! Just the picture makes me dizzy. And it's not the coffee.

I've never seen an unload setup quite like that. You must have quick dump wagons or trucks, and use the shod steer to load into the elevator drag, which must be geared to not overload the blower, use the round bales as 'hopper extension'/backstop?

Nice pic, I tend to get real slow and cautious when I get over 7 feet high, never claimed my silo it has no ladder just the far spaced rings. I can take solid heights but get weak knees on a shaky ladder never know how I react depending on the situation.

Paul

The unloader went bad in mine so I bought a new one for $50, gives you a work out running it! LOL I only put corn silage in it any more, it is only 14 40. I bale all the hay and put up corn silage pile along with the silo.

what is the operation on the ground?

are you grinding up round bales and blowing them into the silo?

That's exactly it,high dump to dump truck than dump on the pad. The conveyor is a 220 3hp motor,works decent enough

No the bales are a temporary back stop when we're pushing the feed to the conveyor.

The feed will pile up at the motor bracket and keep feeding through till it's all gone. Takes some getting used to to get it to feed nicely and not bridge on the conveyor,once you get the knack of it you can push in 700 cu' of feed in about 8 minutes

Yup that's why we shut one down

ah, it see. thought is was a grassy spot and the orangish thing by the blower was a grinder/chopper unit.

so you're dumping trucks and pushing it onto the conveyor with the skid loader. i've see some units (Penn State had one) that kinda looked like a forage box with no sides and no rear axle that the trucks would dump onto the deck and the curtains would feed up into the beaters then the cross conveyor. I think Harvestor makes something too for fast filling silos from trucks. i'm sure your set up is much more reasonable.

always thought uprights were better for feeding small herds especially if you're not running TMR. just flip the switch assuming everything is working properly of course.

Yup your exactly right. Those self running silo fillers are huge dollars. I think we paid $5000 for the conveyor and used 10 yards of cement. It's not a great setup but we make it work. This silo got a new unloader in 09 and when it's worn out well retire it too.