What are silos used for ? For millennia , agricultural civilizations have realized that the power to stack away excess metric grain create by bumper crops leave a safety buffer against lean years , or even just a long winter . The most famous ancient account of this idea is believably the biblical chronicle inGenesis 41 , in which Joseph notify Egypt to stockpile grain so that it may survive the seven old age of predicted shortage .
Indeed , remains of ancient Egyptian storehouses are still in existence today . The same is true of those from ancient Greece , the Middle East , and North and South America .
Roman Catholic record designate that pits stored grain in northern Africa . And the Holy Writ “ silo ” actually come from the Greek word “ siros , ” mean “ a pitfall to hold grain . ”
What are Silos Used For? An Important Innovation
What are silo used for ? They do much more than just hold dry cereal or seed . They ’re also responsible for one of the more of import invention in the account of modern agriculture : silage .
develop through experiments in the 1800s , silage is essentially a leaf crop — perhaps an entire corn stalk , perhaps an entire alfalfa plant , perhaps something else — that has been finely chop and then put in while the wet substance is still high , somewhere near 60 percent .
Because of the moisture depicted object , silage maintains a higher energy and protein storey than dried grass ( hay ) . This fact has made it potential for dairy farmers to keep cows in reliable milk output even during the winter .
Paulette Johnson
But one caveat survive . You need a way to keep the silage from spoiling .
When James Leonard Farmer make hay , the key to preservation is to ensure low wet subject and to keep the hay dry . But farmers put silage up fresh , so the key to long - condition ensilage storage involves keeping O levels to a lower limit .
The silo is the key to this process . In core , silage is pickle .
Paulette Johnson
Storing the silage in the low - oxygen environment of the silo encourages anaerobic germ to ferment the forage product , but in a way that ruminants — including sheep , goats and , importantly , cattle — can still digest .
In hypothesis , the fermentation process and the silo will protect the silage from hogwash . Silage is an first-class invention . Over the eld , there have been a number of different solvent to the ensilage storage unit : the modern silo .
allow ’s take a field template approach and examine some of the modern ( post-1900 ) silo types you might discover while explore rural America . Paulette Johnson
William Garrett/Flickr
Tower Silos
Farmers experimented with silage for a few decades in the 1800s , mostly using pits or square structures constructed inside existing barns . It was n’t until the late 1880s that John Steele , a member of the Wisconsin legislature , retrace the first round column silo , dub the “ Steele Silo . ”
Agricultural scientist Franklin Hiram King of the Wisconsin Experimental Station furthered the innovation with his “ King Silo ” in 1891 .
The round tower silo is what most people have in mind when they think of a silo . Like lighthouses dot a shoreline , towboat silos have something of a charming appeal .
Daniel Johnson
Even people who do n’t know their use instantly acknowledge them . Plus , they ’re iconic symbolic representation of country life .
orotund silos are good for several reasons . For one thing , a circle is strong , specially when reenforce by brand band the way most silos are .
All the weight of the food grain in the silo ( think of it as a soma of pressure ) push outward on the side and prove to pour forth in all focusing . A circle assist to keep that . Also , the content of early hearty silo stand from all-embracing spoilage in the corner .
But round towboat silo are n’t without their downsides . The very fermentation summons that preserves ensilage can produce gas that are unhealthful and wild to humankind .
Some silo , particularly glass / steel silo , are very effective at keeping O levels to a lower limit . This can present a danger to anyone go into the silo for maintenance or review . Silage can also be a attack danger .
But this has n’t forbid tug silos from achieving far-flung role .
you may fin towboat silos built using many unlike construction method , some of which went in and out of style over the years .
Read more : Here are 4 ways to use silage tarps in vegetable production .
Wood
woods silos were pop up until around 1900 , when they start to be interchange by other stuff that were more resistive to decline in quality from silage seepage .
Sometimes , they ’re more octagonal or polygonal shape - shaped than orotund . That ’s likely because such shapes are easier to make out of wood .
The wooden silos thatstill exist look quite beautiful and interesting — enthralling pieces of a moment in rural story that speedily disappeared . William Garrett / Flickr
Masonry
You might also see vintage silo of Freemasonry construction , such as stone or brick . Some of these are quite attractive and unique .
These are often historical in nature , constructed during the experimental eld of silos , when farmers sought alternative to woods , but before concrete and crank / steel silos became the norm .
The cost of construct a Harlan Fisk Stone or brick silo was influenced by the need to hire James Mason for the work . But if the part was deep in stones , the material was readily available .
Concrete
Concrete was before long found to be an excellent construction material . And many classical tower silos are construct of concrete walls with metal cap . You ’ll learn a few subvarieties here :
Read more : Here are 4 reason you need farm insurance for your hobby farm .
Glass-Lined Steel Silos
Starting around the fifties , silos constructed of chalk - lined steel plates increase in popularity . brand sheets bolted together and effectively encased in porcelain represent the walls .
ensilage is loaded into these distinctive silo from the top and removed from below by use of an unloader . Glass silos like these are known as low - atomic number 8 silos , since they are very well sealed and take moldable air bladders to further protect the ensilage from oxygen vulnerability .
The bladders permit the air pressure level inside the silo to match that of the open .
While still in economic consumption on some farms , chalk silos have n’t maintain their former popularity , due perchance tocompetition from bunker silos . Also , the unloading chemical mechanism prove hard and expensive to rectify .
Rectangular/Square Silos
The satisfying silo design predates the round tower silo . But , as observe , the excogitation led to spoilage in the corners .
Eventually , Farmer abandoned the construct of the square silo intent . Today ’s farmers , however , find virtue in square silos once again .
With raw innovations to forestall spoiling , modernsquare silo allow farmers to maximise their storage space . ( Square silos hold about 25 precent more than stave silo . )
These silo can contain unlike compartment , allowing store of more than one product in the same silo . Also , they assemble much more easily . Daniel Johnson
Horizontal Silos
As iconic as column silo have been for the last 100 - plus years , and as useful as they may be for housing ensilage , times do change . And with them , technology changes , too .
Today — in a kind of tax return to the preceding — horizontal silo take the place of tugboat silo , especially for large agricultural surgical operation .
While perhaps lacking the bucolic good luck charm of a majestic column silo , horizontal silos have proven their worth time and again in late old age for their functionality and effectualness at storing great amount of money of ensilage and keeping it secure .
Horizontal silos are also faster to unload — a vital factor that take a crap them more desirable on many of today ’s farms .
Silage Bunkers
Silage bunker typically have two prospicient , parallel concrete or wooden walls . You could find crops bundle in and then seal off with plastic along a third wall on one end .
In an effort to squeeze extra O out of the harvest , James Leonard Farmer employ large - wheeled tractor to drive back and forth across the silage bunkers during and after the fill process to assist press oxygen out of the forage . Once filled , prominent plastic sheeting track the dugout to varnish against the air as much as possible .
ultimately , the credit card is weighed down , often with tyre walls , but occasionally by other means such as sandbags . This exercising weight mathematical function to batten the credit card from wind and utilize pressure to the ensilage , forcing out additional oxygen .
Properly charge and maintain a silage bunker requires quite a second of acquirement and research . Massive amounts of spoilage and grave avalanching of the ensilage can occur if wrong process are used . But when constructed and replete properly , these structures allow safe storage and faster remotion for feeding of huge quantities of feed .
It ’s no admiration they ’re so popular in with child agricultural preferences .
Trench silo use fundamentally the same concept , except the bunker is dug into the ground alternatively of using walls built on top of it .
learn more : A hay wet tester can help with salt away your hay bales .
Silage Piles
Another option similar to the silage sand trap is a silage mess , sometimes have it away as a take - over pile . This is sometimes used as backup root during a bumper crop , when there is an surplus of ensilage that wo n’t meet in the silo or sand trap .
Some farm even utilize ensilage piles as primary silage storage . They provide lasting housing for the craw using nothing but a large concrete slab and adequate plastic covering .
As with ensilage sand trap , the agglomerate is compressed by large - wheeled tractors to help in oxygen removal . But without the concrete walls of a bunker , it ’s more ambitious to achieve the right amount of compaction .
Again , people often use tire walls to pin down the credit card covering .
Restoring an Old Silo
It ’s always nice to see vintage farm buildings restored . And if you own property with an older silo , you may be consider refurbishment .
But with silo , you must recollect to take extra care and caution — preferably with the help of a silo expert . This is especially lawful if the silo is mean to be put back into economic consumption .
But even if the goal is simply to stabilise the construction , be sure to get an inspection and advice on any cracks , foundational yield , and corrosion that may have formed from years and years of silage acid on metal supports .
Restoration companies may fix leaning silos , apply acid - resistant coating , and do whatever else it take to make the structure safe and functional again .
