Silo Unloader

Bruce's plan for the day was to get the haylage silo going.  All he had to do was pull the electrical cord up (75 lbs) and plug the unloader in and pull the tube up (15 lbs) and connect it to the hood in the door. That was the story after he got done yesterday.  The hood that the tube is connected to was worn out last spring and we had gotten another one.  He climbed up the inside of the chute with it (10 lbs) but he couldn't get it through the door to install it. He had to climb back down and take it up the outside of the silo and pull it up with a rope, and then put it through the bigger door in the roof.  He did some final adjustments and lost a wrench so he climbed down the silo and got a magnet. The silo is full so it is 60 ft. straight up each trip.  It took 7 trips up the silo to get everything adjusted and working correctly.  No need for an additional exercise program in his world!  We are happy to report that Bruce's back is back to being that of a 56 year old.  Bruce corrected me in the barn tonight that he was feeling so good that he thought it would pass for a 55 year old : )  At his worst he maneuvered like an 80 year old.

With the magic of YouTube I found a video of how a silo unloader works.  Ours isn't exactly like this but the principal is the same.  Augers grind the feed loose and work it towards a blower.  The blower blows it to the hood in the door where it falls down a plastic tube to the elevator at the bottom.  There are doors all the way up the silo and as the silage is fed down the hood has to be "let down a door" so the spout can reach. 

We spent the afternoon today at a pasture walk.  We enjoy these events and have hosted 3 of them here in the past.  The nice thing about getting together with others interested in rotational grazing is people are willing to share information whether something worked well or failed miserably.  We all learn from each other and every year is a different event for all of us.  There is always a specialist and specific topic covered.  Todays topic covered grass types, reseeding and combinations of seed that create good pasture along with native species.