silo filling stories?

it going to be fall before long, and time to fill silo for some,
does any one still fill silos?
or did in the past?

what tractors and choppers did you use? blowers? wagons?

grandpa had a old deere model 8 (I THINK) pulled by a deere 730

whats your story? thanks

I am on the SD/MN border- involved in a cow/calf operation and we finish the calves. I cant think of anyone in my area that still fills upright silos, but we do. We have a Gehl Hi-Throw blower powered by a John Deere 4240. The chopper is a JD 3960 with a JD 4640 in front of it. We have agri-speed hitches on the wagons to make things go easier. The wagons are Farmhand F48C 14' that unload out the front left-hand side. These wagons are kind of oddballs, as the have an auger mounted lengthwise that travels back and forth to unload into the front cross conveyor chain. We pull wagons with a JD 3020 diesel.

We open up fields with a New Idea 702 Uni with a two row corn picker (this saves a lot of trouble picking up knocked down corn).

I dont have any really interesting stories, but I always look forward to silo filling time. I am old enough to remember neighbors helping each other chopping silage. It was a time of good food, lots of socializing, and lots of work being accomplished. All of the family-run dairy farms are gone around here, and the few outfits left that put up silage put it in piles or bunkers.

Lon

First tractor and chopper I remember was dads 830 diesel com Case with a case 300 chopper. He bought another new 300 and then a couple years later went to a nh 717, then the 830 went for a new 870 and a super 717 and later a 718. First boxes were Dakkon live bottom wagons on Case gears with an all is hopper blower. Then he bought two new Badger 14' boxes and a new badger blower. That blower only stayed for a couple years because they came out with a much better updated version. He traded for a couple new 718 choppers and that's what he had when he quit.

We always filled our two silos, an 18x35 and a 20x50 plus a large stack. Then dad would also chop large stacks for my brothers as well. He would also do custom chopping for neighbors, a lot on the early years, maybe 20 silos. Most of those were smaller 30-35' jobs tho. In the end when he was doing my brothers he still did a couple of his old customers as well til they quit. In those last years I would guess he cut well over 100 acres with his 970 and 718 chopper and those two badger boxes and an old wood one he bought somewhere that rarely worked. He chopped and ya boys hauled and when making a stack my older brother brought his 930 with the heavy all hydraulic loader to make the stacks.

I really loved that time and miss it a lot.

One of my first and favorite memories of him was when he would leave for a custom job with the 830, 300 chopper, 3 wagons and the hopper blower all hooked together with the silo pipes in the wagon. What a sight to see heading out the driveway and down the road.

Helped with filling silo for over 50 years.....starting in 1965 when my dad put up a 16 x 40 silo. We filled that year with a corn binder and cutting box, working with a neighbour. As kids, we ran the down pipe and trampled silo. Next move was a different neighbour using an IH 400 gas on a 2 row Doin harvester, with 2 rear unloading wagons the silage dragged off by fork into a trough type blower driven by a WD Allis. Then my dad bought his own unit, a one row 782 AC harvester driven by a 65 MF and one Dion wagon pulled by a 30 Massey and an MF 35 on an AC blower. Moved up to a 2120 JD in 1973 with a one row NH Super 717 harvester, and same blower. We used this for years, extending the silo to 50 feet plus building another 16 x 60 silo, but used a Ford 4000 on the blower and a 44 Special Massey on the a Rex wagon and the Dion. I bought this from him in 1983, upgraded the harvester to a NH 718 and a NH 25 blower. In 1992 I bought a 2955 JD, put a 2 row 824 heat from the harvester, the 2120 on the blower and my MH 55 to draw the wagons. Upgraded to a NH 790 harvester and an 880W forage head to harvest haulage. Used a 2755 on the blower and the 2120 on 2 brand new Dion wagos, and filled 6 silos a year for some time. Ran this unit til the cattle left in 2017. Always liked that job.....

Ben

Our neighbors had a Wisconsin engine that filled the silo. I don't think it had a muffler and it kind of galloped/surged, can still here it in my mind.
I do remember hanging out with one of their nephews when they were chopping corn and riding in the wagon with goggles on. Stupid kids lol.

We filled 2 pit silos with case one row cutter (don't know model number) pulled by 85 Massey Ferguson diesel. M Farmall with 9 speed trans dualed up pulled wagons .When doable we would go up the pile with those higher gears till it stopped then unloaded with hoists. Otherwise we drove down hill on the pile .Dumped at top end and pushed silage down hill with loader. 44 Massey with Dual loader for push tractor. Then graduated to a 550 IH 2 row pulled by 1850 Oliver. And finally went to a Gehl 600 cutter and 4430 to power it. I still use the Gehl 600 but pull it with a JD 7430. Wagons are Roordas rear unload pulled by 4020 and 3020

My Dad hired a neighbor to fill the brick silo on the farm for us, they provided all of the equipment except for the tractor to drive the blower. They used our Oliver 88 to run the blower (had an 1800 gas motor), they would push the blower and make the 88 bark, Dad didn't like they were treating the 88, so after that they brought their own blower tractor.

What I remember as if it was yesterday was climbing a 40' ladder sitting in the back of a dumptruck to get it to reach the top of the silo so I could put a rope and block on the side of silo to pull the blower pipe to the top of the silo. The neighbors said later that my leg was shaking so bad that they were not sure I was going to make it, and they were not going to climb the ladder themselves. We left the rope and block hanging on the side of the silo so I never had to climb the ladder again.

Another memorable day, I ended up with a pitchfork through my arm, we forked the silage from the silo down the chute into a cattle feeder. I handed a pitchfork up the chute to my brother and turned to grab another fork. The first fork slipped from his hand and went through the arm that I was using to hold myself while I reached for the second fork. I was able to pull the fork out of my arm and went to the doctor. All the doctor could do was give me a tetanus shot and clean the wound. The tine didn't hit any bones, blood vessels or tendons, so there was no permanent damage.

Back when we had dairy our last setup was 560D on a Gehl pto blower, a 1466 pulling a New Holland super 717, filling H & S chopper boxes, we did fill for about 6 farmers, this was late seventies, I enjoyed doing it back then, loved the smell of chopped corn !

My Grandfather and his brothers were all dairymen. They filled 6, 60' silos for the one farm, and a few more for my Uncle Leon. This was from 1964 through about 1987. They used John Deere tractors and all of them had the fuel turned up. When my Uncle Leon finally had his farm sale a number of years ago, his old 4020 ended up at the dairy farm that I live across the road from. That farm still fills a few silos and Leon's 4020 is always on the blower. And I always know its Leon's 4020 without even seeing it, because I'll hear the blower start working and then see a black plume of smoke rise up between the silos. Grandad said their silos all were black on one side from that.

Also heard the story that one year, in the 60s or early 70s, a storm came through and leveled a bunch of corn just before chopping time. My Great Grandfather, who was running the dairy operation at the time, traded in a BRAND NEW chopper they had recently bought, on a new different brand chopper, because it had some feature that would pick up the downed corn. I can't remember the details and I'm sorry, but I THINK he traded a new Deere in on a red chopper of some make. I could have that reversed though. Whichever way it was, he said the dealer put that new, traded in chopper out front on his yard so everyone would see.

Massey 44 special,IHC 20c chopper ,and a case chopper, 2 home made chopper boxes with read discharge at first then Massey 2805 ,Massey 260 chopper three row head, three MF forage boxes [Badger North land ] New Holland blower

Silo filling is my favorite farm job. I could write stories for hours. In the fall of 1968 dad had a new 4020 and did a good bit of custom work. He had a one year old Deere 34 chopper and hated it. He traded it on a new 38. The dealer delivered it and they went to the field. Tried 4th gear and not enough power and then third and then second. They then stopped and looked for the problem which was found in the wagon. The chopper had a screen and the silage looked like applesause. They removed the screen and went back to work. Dad finished that load and one more finishing that strip of corn. It was lunch time so they took the 110 chuckwagon into unload and left the 112 chuckwagon in the corn field.The 4020 and new 38 were moved to the next strip of corn which was at the bottom of the hill. When they returned from lunch they found a wreck. The loaded wagon had drifted down the hill backwards and ran into the rear of the new chopper. Dad called the dealer and was told the delivery man was not even back with his trade in. Dad had used John Deere financing to buy the chopper so it was insured. The next day he had another brand new chopper. That fall in the next county there was a big dairy that decided to hire their chopping done. Dad had his 4020 and 38,grandfather had a 190XT with a 780 Allis chopper and another fried had a Deere 5010 with a 38 chopper. They put 400 acres in one trench. The first load looked like someone had upset a wheelbarrow. They ran a fence post thru the chopper with the 5010 and the only comment was it started pulling a little hard. Hit a rock ledge and bent the center snoot clear back under the chopper. Lost the bolt out of the coupling pole on a wagon at night and never knew it until they unhooked the full wagon and realized there were no back wheels. Filled one silo and it got full before they thought it would and blew the roof off the silo. It was a 540 blower that was being run on 1000.There is also the story of running a tool box through a blower and junking the blower and 60 feet of new plastic pipe.Tom

JL2510,I always liked going past their place during silo filling. They ran 2 choppers and must of had 8 or 10 Grove forage wagons. You are correct about the top of those silos being black. They were the big operators back in the day. Tom

Just remembered another silage related story. In the late 70s they bought a new John Deere 4640. It was between that or a 6030, but they liked the wet clutch and quad range transmission on the 46, so went with that. It was delivered and went right out to the field pulling a 3 row chopper. My Uncle Fred was running it a short while (he always did the chopping), and he told Grandad that if that's all the more power that tractor had then send it back! So they turned it up that day. It was turned up its entire life.

Before my time but in the mid 70s the folks were building a new house. The spot they chose was in the middle of the corn field so dad told tge neighbor he could cut the silage off the building spot. Well he showed up with a new 5400 deere and found a spring at the end of the field where they came out and sunk the chopper. Well his brother had a 1070 hauling wagons so they hooked it and dads 185 Massey on it and could not budge it. He took his 1070 home and brought back his case 4x4 and it and the 185 could not budge it. The neighbor took dads truck home and got his 8630 and it drug it out no problem. My neighbors was giving his brother keck about the case not pulling him out. Somewhere dad has pics. Probably never been that much almost new equipment on the place since.

I am among the last to chop their own silage ,

had a lot of fun chopping corn and haylage with my boys while they were young . Once they grew up and got there own jobs/lives/ homes they aren’t interested in helping

And I find it’s getting to be a burden trying to do it alone.

We started with an old Gehl one row cut and throw chopper for a few years then went to the Uni with a 3 row head. Used that till the end. First Uni was a 702 diesel then a 708 first chopper was a 760 with the touch up stone. Then with the 708 came the 767 that had the sharpener on it. Would chop fast enough if you hauled across a 20 acre field you needed 3 wagons and 2 drivers to keep up. We bagged all the chopping 8x150 back then and filled 3 with corn 3 with hay and 1 with ground ear corn. Still used the old 760 with a 3/4 hole screen for the ear corn. Looked like feed in the wagon.
Most of those years were wet enough we would pull gravity wagons along side to do the ear corn. I don't miss the frogging around in the mud. I used to open up fields for a few guys with that old Uni back then.

I loved silo filling time. Dad dug a trench silo and I remember neighbors hauling shocks in on flat bed wagons and pitching it into the cutter at the silo. Then in 52 dad bought a one row Gehl chopper with a Red Seal engine on it. Pulled it with a WD. My uncle and dad had made wagons with drags to haul silage. To go around terraces I rode with one foot on the engine and the other on the blower holding on to the spout to guide it. I don't know if mommy ever knew what dad had me doing. Jump ten years later I helped dads youngest cousin cut silage, what a change. He had a 2290 Case on a three row Hesston and neighbor brought over his three row self propelled Field Queen. I was using his 8630 JD with dozer blade to push it into the trench silo.

My wife's nephew now owns that 4640. It is in the shop with engine problems. It was the biggest tractor in the county for years. They always won the farm class at the Ag Expo with it. Tom

Dad was one of many that built a couple Harvestore units - ours in 74 and 75. At the time it seemed to make sense. Actually they are still in use today! We never were a dairy. Cattle feedlot and hogs. Now just cattle. The 25x39 unit for hi moisture corn was first filled in fall of 1974. We had an early frost and had plenty of wet corn. Today I prefer to have the corn around 20% moisture as it harvests, handles and feeds well. The second unit was a 25x65 in spring of 1975 for silage. We chopped oats, lots of alfalfa haylage, some ryelage and of course corn silage.
The first couple years used a turbo 4020, NH 717 w one row corn head or hay pickup. For quite a while a JD 115 - 4 wheeler and JD 125-6 wheeler. In 1979 dad bought a new NH 892 with 880? Hay pickup and 822 2 row corn head. It was hooked to the 4430 and later the 4440. Wagons unloaded with 4020 because the cab kept most of the silage dust off us. The NH 27 blower was powered by the old 720 diesel. We usually lugged the p--- out of it. For years we spent much of the summer chopping hay, It never seemed to end. Sometimes we chopped so much hay the silo was full by early Sept. For the last 10'years or so we moved to corn silage. It only had to be done once and often made around 20 tons per acre rather than about 5 tons of alfalfa in 4 harvests all summer long.
Today it is the 4440 with NH 900 and 824- 2 row head. NH 8 wagon, Meyer Wagon, JD 125 and a Roorda wagon. All on 6 wheel gears. And the 4430 on the same NH 27 blower. Use a 7600 to pull wagons.

We moved up to WI back in 69, I don't remember if it was the first year or second but we were using the old false endgate style wagons with a long hopper blower. Had to borrow the neighbors old Farmall 15-30 to run that with a belt. I still remember the thing crawling into the yard on its old steel wheels , the next year dad put a PTO on it and we used our brand new IH 444.....

We moved to our last place in 79. Had an old Ford chopper that was very worthless, but it did teach me a lot about sharpening knives and setting shear bars.... Dad bought 2 Case 300 choppers (one was a parts machine)and the difference was like night and day, could finally blow the silage all the way to back of the wagons. First year we only had a 14x40 silo and we filled that with corn silage and then we filled an old 12x30 that was out in a neighbors field where the old farmstead used to be. It was my job to run down there every day and throw down enough silage for a day, haul it home and feed the cows...
We put up a 20x70 the next year and I was so happy that I wouldn't have to fork silage....but it was a terribly wet year and the last of the silage went up so wet that the unloader wouldn't handle it, so I was forking for a few weeks till we got down to dryer stuff. Would pitch down enough that dad would get the 40 cows fed then he would stack it up in the silo room so that we could feed twice more.

Nice to see that old Case working Bruce, great pics

Helped a local Amish farmer last week fill silo. Cut it down with a sickle bar mower, load by hand onto a wagon, pull wagon to silo, hand feed chopper/blower......
He is about a week early - most will be doing it this week.

I used to help my father in law with silo filling and picking corn back in the 70's. My favorite time of the year as long as it wasn't too muddy. We used a Papec blower belted to an E4. Dad would run the one-row IH binder behind the E3 and hire local kids to pick up bundles.

Silo filling in the seventies was a JD3010 on a Gehl flywheel cut type chopper. Used a Case SC on the NH Whirlfeed blower. The old Case would bounce like a basket ball filling the 60 foot silo. Always enjoyed filling silo.

We cut the corn with a McCormick Deering corn binder pulled by two horses named Sam & Daisy. Then the horses pulled a wagon through the field and we loaded the bundles on the wagon and hauled the load up beside a New Holstein silo filler powered by a WC Allis Chalmers on the belt. Filled two silos. One 12x30 and the other a large temporary silo made with snow fence and black silo paper which was about 16x20. The temp silo got fed off first and taken down and the 12x30 concrete silo was used through the winter. Ran out about the time the pastures were ready in the spring.

Grew up on the farm in the south end of Kandiyohi county in Minnesota...

This vintage picture shows silo filling in the early 40s.



Hard to see, but there is a 1936 Allis WC running the belt to a corn chopper. There is a team of 2 horses pulling a rack and someone is tossing a corn bundle in. Another person is at the top of the silo waving their arms. That WC is still on the farm.

These 2 are from about 1963 or so. These are stills from a 8mm home movie. 1956 MM UB Diesel on the chopper. I think its a New Holland.





That is maybe a Farmall "H" pulling the power wagon? Must be a neighbors.

In later years, there was a NH 717 chopper and the blower was a Allis Chalmers unit. It was still using a belt drive. Shared with the neighbors but my Dad was the last man standing so the chopper and blower ended up with him and was at his retirement auction. We used those power wagons till the end and hand forking the silage out (last fall was 1996). In the early 80s I remember helping with the wagons at one neighbors and got to drive his "H". They used a M on the blower belt.

I have some still photos of the 90s but not scanned in. We used the 1980 White 2-105 on the chopper in the 80s and 90s.

When Dad was about my age now (early-mid 50s) he would not go up the silo ladder to take up the rope. Said he got the "willies" Made me do it... We always took down the fill pipe (blower shared with neighbors) so someone had to climb the ladder with rope tied around their waist and feed it through the pulley up there. The pipes got pulled up with the rope tied on the tractor down below. I clearly remember standing on top of the "safety" ring at the top with one foot on that ring and one arm holding onto the steps on the dome with the rest of my body hanging in open air reaching out to grab the gooseneck and pull the pipe into the hatch on the roof.

Ooof! You could not pay me any amount of $$$$ to do that now!!!

Would be really neat to see that or any other farming home movie you have converted to digital & posted on YouTube. If you have the time of course....
& provided you would have the want to. I understand that can be viewed as personal material & some folks wish to keep those things private.

Mike

Lots of chopping stories; stuck wagons, plugged blower pipes, broken axles,...ect. Filled a 20'x60' stave built in 1976 with corn silage, a 20'x90' Harv with haylage, and an occasional bag or two. I enjoyed chopping because when you were done, you were done, not having to gather round bales and sometimes wrapping them.