Has anyone here ever used a tower silo?

I've been considering the possibility of using one for crimped maize or CCM, as it is a higher value feed and I am mainly looking to reduce the spoilage found in clamps. The option of crimping or cracking while filling the silo would also lead to better harvesting options.

I'm just wondering how, and if, they actually work: how do you compress the crop? Do you create a vaccuum? And how on earth do you get the silage out?

Any replies welcomed...

Hi don't really know a hell of a lot about them but i do know that your dry matter needs to be alot higher and you normally get it out via a conveyer belt some systems even have the conveyer going straight to feed barrier.Two farms in our area seem to be moving away from using them?I can understand your interest though due to the fact that waste would be almost none existant i would say.

I was too young to really remember them using them, but next door used to hate their towers with a passion! The machinery was always breaking down to fill and empty them, I do wonder now if that was because they were a bit impatient and chopped a bit wet, therefore there was a lot of corrosive juices getting in the works. Probably the same reason that the silage wouldn't flow out and someone had to risk life by climbing in and cutting it out on a regular basis.

Have you looked at the Ag-bagging socks if you want to reduce waste. They seemed a great idea when I first saw them, but don't seem to have caught on. I don't think they keep up with modern foragers, and the plastic costs more than for a clamp.

dont touch them with a bargepole.

they cost the earth to run and build a nearby farm put his to the scrap ten yrs ago.

what they spent could have bought a small farm.

just build a clamp, and cover the plastic with wrapped bales,you get zero waste.

you never have to get out the cab on a wet day to clear tyres, just lift the bales off and scoop the silage up.

We have earth bank silage pits. There is almost no waste at all as you can roll every inch due to the tapered sides. We cover ours with tyres but I do like Glasshouse's suggestion about the wrapped bales.

I've no experience of tower silo's, but every one in this area has been taken down so they can't have been much use. I seem to recall stories of people getting killed in them when trying to unblock / repair them ??

Over here in canada tower silos are more the norm than clamps but they come with there own set of problems such as when they are first opened the  blower must be run at full speed for a couple of hours to clear out the DEADLY GASSES THAT FORM  during the ensiling process. as preveously stated the dry matter content has to be higher than for a clamp , the compresion is done by the wieght of the crop as it sits in the silo ,as to forming the vacume the silo is closed up when filling has been completed and then arobic fermentation takes place untill the oxygen is used up and then anerobic fermentation takes place. when the silo is opened the unloader wich is a ring type auger or chain that rotates around a central pivot and discharges though a chute that acess  doors in the side of the tower, this unloader goes down part by gravity and part by a winch but you have to enter the silo to change the door positions and adjust the chute . in the winter they can freeze up solid and you have to hack out the sillage with a fork or somthing simillare. there is also the cost of the specilasised machinery required to fill such an animal IE the blower and the self unloading forage boxes that run on 4 wheel wagon chasis a tipping trailer will not work  look at the north american sites for companys like new holland to see this machinery

best of luck on your decion

bales on top also confuses the spy in the sky!

glasshouse:

bales on top also confuses the spy in the sky!

I've usually heard of most tricks Glasshouse, but you've lost me now. Please remind me why this is a good thing ?

listen carefully, i will say this only once........

silage pits are supposed to have effluent control dont they?  stacks of bales dont.

Correct. Of course, I was only testing you Glasshouse

bovril:

Have you looked at the Ag-bagging socks if you want to reduce waste. They seemed a great idea when I first saw them, but don't seem to have caught on. I don't think they keep up with modern foragers, and the plastic costs more than for a clamp.

stay clear of them too, someone round here tried them one year for whole crop, the only thing he fed with it was the crows, they made a hell of a mes of them, he is now left with two piles of plastic covered sh*t in the corner of the yard.

 Thanks for all the replies, especially "me myself and I", that was detailed and very helpful.

Bovril, the trouble with Ag-bags is I've got nowhere to put them, this ground is just too wet for winter feeding and there is no yard space.

Has anyone got any other ideas for storing crimped maize? I want to avoid plastic if possible, but will it go through a normal meal bin? Maybe a clamp will be the only option...