Reading posts on silos got me thinking of when I worked for some dairy farmers in high school. When the silos were filled I would climb the outside ladder to level off the top. I did this because that is what the first farmer I worked for did. Why didn't we just climb the ladder that is in the load out chute with the doors and remove the top door? Was it just because the outside ladder was easier to climb? Hopefully someone can have some more insight.
- Thread starter Bkpigs
- Start date
There are gases created in just chopped silage. They are heavier than air. So IF there are gases in the silo and you open the door the gasses will flow out over you. Many people have died by these gases suffocating them. So if the silo is clear full going up the outside ladder is safer. Even then silo gases can be a danger. I always run the blower for a good while before I enter a silo around filling time.
onefarmer
Well-known Member
- Location
- 6735 S Lowell Rd, St Johns, Mi 48879
Mainly it's much cleaner. Always stopped to have a look around while up there too. When we needed to top off we always had the blower going. It fed clean fresh air and helped blow out the bad gases.
Part Time Pete
Well-known Member
- Location
- Leatherstocking Region NY
My favorite, was when the guy I worked for would insist on using his Ford 3600 to fill the small silo. Those three cylinders smoked a lot, and the exhaust came out the back, so all the fumes were sucked into the blower, and up the silo...
BarnyardEngineering
Well-known Member
- Location
- Rochester, NY
Nobody ever went up the outside of our silos. Always used the chute. Can't look down, get vertigo, and fall off in the chute.
Best thing to purge the silo gas is to run material up there. You can always get a part of a load up there with no problems, so you'd start unloading the wagon at low speed and by the time someone climbed to the top, there air had been changed out a couple times already and there was a layer of fresh material covering up the partially-fermented stuff that was making the gas.
Best thing to purge the silo gas is to run material up there. You can always get a part of a load up there with no problems, so you'd start unloading the wagon at low speed and by the time someone climbed to the top, there air had been changed out a couple times already and there was a layer of fresh material covering up the partially-fermented stuff that was making the gas.
Climbing the outside is easier for tall people like me that are cramped up in a chute. Besides, you never know what you might encounter in a chute. Over the years I farmed, I encountered critters including rats, a raccoon, pigeons, and hornets. Also when you put 500+ tons in a silo in one day, there is usually a fair amount of hot sticky acidic juices oozing from the bottom third of the doors. And the silo gas perks through the doors for a few days and is diluted by the blower, but you can still smell it in the chute.
Never had an issue with vertigo, but that is a good point. Our tall silos, like those 80-120 feet
tall, had cages around the outside ladder so you could lean back and relax a few times on the way
up. As a general rule, the ladder is in much better shape, cleaner and safer on the outside of the
silo unless people are very diligent about fixing silo doors. I have had my feet push in a door
that had rusty hardware and if I hadn't had a good grip with my hands, it could have been terminal.
tall, had cages around the outside ladder so you could lean back and relax a few times on the way
up. As a general rule, the ladder is in much better shape, cleaner and safer on the outside of the
silo unless people are very diligent about fixing silo doors. I have had my feet push in a door
that had rusty hardware and if I hadn't had a good grip with my hands, it could have been terminal.
T in NE
Well-known Member
- Location
- Cambridge, Nebraska
Back east we lost a local in a silo my senior year. He got buried leveling it. They had him dug out but the vfd wouldn't go up the silo because of silo gasses, and were trying to get the family to get out of the silo.
They were waiting on a ladder truck so they could take their air tanks up. Wouldn't even take up a backboard. Had a crash course in silo gas that spring. No mention of ventilation with a blower, apparently
If they had something hard to lay him on to do CPR who knows he may have made it.
They were waiting on a ladder truck so they could take their air tanks up. Wouldn't even take up a backboard. Had a crash course in silo gas that spring. No mention of ventilation with a blower, apparently
If they had something hard to lay him on to do CPR who knows he may have made it.
Donald Lehman
Well-known Member
Yes! We put up a snow fence silo nearly every year for several years, until Pop scraped up the sheckles to put up another silo. Miserable to put up, a lot of spoilage around the outside.
rdandersom
Member
The older silo on the farm where I grew up had doors that rested and locked into the door below.You couldn't open a door part way up.The
newer silo was built so that you could open any door but when the silo is right full there is very little space or handholds at the top of
the chute.
newer silo was built so that you could open any door but when the silo is right full there is very little space or handholds at the top of
the chute.
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