Oh boy, ... reminds me of my childhood and youth days, in the 50's, 60's. We had a 12X35 silo, and I was the one who did nearly all the forking, "throw down the silage," as we knew it. Most of our silage was grass silage, (grass/clover/vetch), put in the silo in late Spring. We did not start feeding out until November(?). Despite filling it to the brim, when we started feeding out, the top level settled a few feet. And, the material was packed in tight! We used a long-handled 4 tine fork, and usually a new one to start the season. Over the time to fork out the entire silo, the wooden handle would get bent from the leverage needed to break it loose. Very few dairy farmers had silo unloaders. We parked a two-wheeled trailer under the chute, so no wheelbarrows. The task was a daily one, feeding out the silage in the evening. The trailer load fed about 25 head of milking cows, and 10 heifers. A few times in later years, we did put in corn, and it is much easier to fork out of the silo. It does not pack nearly as tight as grass. BTW, if your silo is 16X55, you have about 11,000 cu ft. I found a couple of sources that put packed corn silage at 35#/cu ft, loose, 25#/cu ft. At 35, that would mean about 193 tons.
Your video sure brought back memories for me. At this point, I only raise crops. But when I was younger we dairy farmed and had 2 old wooden silos, neither had an unloader. So, everyday during the fall and winter, when I got home from my "off the farm" job, I had to fork silage down the chute. It's hard work, but you do what you have to do. I definitely enjoy your videos. Keep it up.
I don't know if I've seen a wooden silo still standing. At least I know know forking down silage will always go as planned. I am getting tired of fixing machines. Thank you
Well, Most of the farmers around my area in western PA use mostly older equipment. And generally we find that we have to "fix it before we can use it". There are some that always have a lot of new equipment, however, the advantage we have is that our equipment is old, but is paid for. I'd rather do that than be in debt up to my ears.
Jacob I really enjoy ur videos it brings back so many memories when I was younger i live in Kentucky we milk cows raised tobacco it’s really nice to see young men stepping up to the plate and take farming for career and u help ur mom and dad I like that take care be careful around that equipment
Love your channel, finally a farming channel thatdoes the same thing we do on our farm, can relate to a lot of things u do, even run same brand of machinery, keep the videos coming!
We had a 14x45 here at home, with a Badger Pack Drive from the dinasaur era, and Grandpa had a 16x40 and a 16x55. Those had a 2nd hand Badger pack drive, and the big silo got upgraded to a Badger ring drive. Ring drive beat the pack drives all to hell. Neighbor had Patz. Some reason the first 1 fell after it was raised. Dealer came put new Patz up. Hour after they left, it fell too. Dealer screwed something up. My Grand Uncle sold Badger. Dad and my cousin put a new Badger ring drive in, because Chuck wouldn't have the Patz dealer come back. Funny how not much later, John Deere dealer got rights to sell Patz from the Ford/NH dealer.
I've forked it by hand & ran an unloader. unloaders can be a pain @ times but can be well worth it on your back or if you have a belt feeder. But by you guys feeding it with a wheelbarrow, forking by hand makes a lot of sense & is the most cost effective I'd say. Did you put the unloader in there just as a "what if" scenario then?
We hung it with plans of running the wiring and finding a chain. The neighbor gave it too us, so their is no money tied up in it. I personally like the workout in the winter so I can thaw my bones.
I know you said the Amish built your silo, is the Amish who made all the blocks and steel too or is it a manufacturer silo but the Amish put them up? I was wondering cause that's about the size silo my buddy looking at making for his hobby farm and he's wondering who made it?
@@boehmfarm4276 LOL:) Not as much as I'd hate forking LOL:) Looks like too much work for me, but I'm a fat old man LOL:) Electrical is easy, particularly AC... Few guys backgrounding calves have done bunker silage down here but that's about it. 99% of cattle people just do dry hay. Later! OL J R :)
We just opened our large silos today. Had to push the silo matic unloader around for a bit until the gummy stuff went through. Our two 70 by 16 silos hold 180 tones each. But I know what you mean about a work out still fork 70 tones of silage out of one our smaller silos at the feed lot.
We are slowly collecting them a wagon load at a time. They are the most insufferable to move because they are three years old, and the farmer who made them used as little net wrap as possible. The bale spear doesn't penetrate them well either.
Chopped fine with enough moisture still in it to support yeasts to ferment it. Pack it in as tight as you can get it (in a silo it packs itself under its own weight, in a bunker silo you pack it down with the heaviest tractor you got driving on it over and over again as each load is dumped) with the idea to get as much oxygen (air) out of it as possible so it doesn't spoil or rot. Naturally occurring yeasts take over and ferment it, converting some of the plant sugars (and starches in the case of corn) into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Some of the alcohol will use up the available oxygen and convert into vinegar, lowering the pH (making it acidic) until the combination of alcohol concentration and acidity from the vinegar conversion kills off the yeasts and essentially "pickles" the silage. SO long as oxygen is excluded, it will store that way with very little deterioration or loss. That was the purpose of the blue Harvestore silos-- they were ceramic coated steel and sealed up so were airtight, with an "expansion bag" at the top to allow for differing air pressure as the silage outgassed carbon dioxide, but yet keep the silo gases and the outside air separate by the bag acting as a "bladder" to allow air into/out of the silo as needed by expanding or contracting the bag to equalize pressure. The old stave silos like this one weren't airtight and were open to the atmosphere at the top, so the stuff on top got pretty funky depending on how long it sat. Bunker silos or pit silos (in the ground) are usually sealed off from the air by covering the pile or pit with plastic and sealing it down with dirt around the edges, and keeping it tight against the pile with old tires for weight. Oxygen is the great enemy of silage as it breaks down the fermentation byproducts (alcohol and vinegar, or acetic acid) and that allows bacteria to start rotting the material, so it's no longer preserved but rotting. If you're feeding it takes awhile for this porcess to happen, so as long as you're scooping out fresh silage every day, it doesn't really have time to take hold. In bunkers, it's important that you "deface" the silage every day, as oxygen starts soaking in from the exposed face of the silage, and keep the tarps/tires as close to the face as possible. Nice thing about bunker/pit silage is you just feed with a tractor and front end loader by scooping silage off the front of the pile every day. Later! OL J R :)
Oh, and then there's "balage" or "silage bales". Basically bale the material while it's still pretty green (usually about 50% moisture down to about 30% moisture, the more moisture the heavier it is due to water content and the more it "settles" but too little moisture and you can have fermentation problems; too much moisture and you can get rotting from anaerobic bacteria). Basically making wet bales of hay, and then either feeding them through a tubeline wrapper which wraps them in plastic sheet circling round and round the bales as they are deposited on the machine and pushed together into a long line wrapped in plastic sheet as the line is pushed off the back of the wrapper onto the ground for storage, OR individually wrapped by a wrapping machine that takes each bale and rotates it as plastic rolls revolve around it, wrapping the entire bale in plastic on all sides. Individual bales are then moved and stacked with "pincher" type bale clamps, as forks or spears would poke holes in the plastic or tear it. Individual wrappers use a lot more plastic, but bales can be moved and fed individually, so it's more flexible. Individual wrappers are also smaller machines that have even been mounted on the back of round balers (McHale makes one) though many are drawn behind another tractor to the field to wrap bales after they're baled up. Tubeline wrappers use less plastic, since the bales are pressed up against each other to exclude air and then only the round sides are covered in plastic (or square sides for large square balage) but require the hay be brough to the wrapper and loaded one by one as it makes the row of bales, and the bales be located and stacked end-to-end in one particular spot, and they cannot be moved without tearing the plastic apart. Usually either a plastic cap is inserted on one end to start and then finish the row of bales, or cheaper is to use a bale of dry hay at each end to cap the row of bales and stop oxygen getting in... either way usually the first bale or two on either end is a little funky. So long as the plastic remains intact, the bales will ferment inside the plastic as the naturally occurring yeasts feed on the sugars in the forage, producing alcohol, carbon dioxide, and acetic acid (vinegar) which essentially "pickles" the forage. Birds and varmints can often peck holes in the plastic, so one must be vigilant and walk the rows every so often and tape up any holes to prevent rotted forage around the hole from oxygen incursion. There's also bagged silage, where a special bagger machine can take silage from the wagons and pack it into a long, tube-like bag about 5-6 feet in diameter, and pack it tight enough to exclude air. When filled the bag end is then sealed off and the silage ferments in the bag as it would in a silo or bunker or pit. Later! OL J R :)
my gosh....i'd be getting the unloader going. i've thrown cs out of one silo as a kid. dig out the next partially covered door and open it. makes it a little easier.
@@boehmfarm4276 LOL for sure... Amish are funny that way. I've seen and heard so many stories. Lots of Amish and Mennonites around my BIL's place in northern Indiana. Basically they take all kinds of STUPID chances- what I mean by that is, we farmers are in what is by definition a risky business... in fact only loggers surpass us in number of accidents, followed by cops IIRC last time I read the data. Anyway, we all take chances every day, but there's "not too risky" chances and just DUMB stuff people do that get them killed... Amish/Mennonites take those kinds of chances ALL the time. I've heard they believe that God protects them; that if they're "meant to die" in a stupid accident that it was "just their appointed time" and "God called them home" so "why not take chances?" Kinda stupid but there's a lot of circular logic to their thinking from what I've seen, heard, and learned. I read a guy on the Hay Talk forum telling how he hired Amish teens to stack hay in his barn, a good old high mow gambrel barn so typical on Midwest farms... He said he finally had to quit hiring them, because they were just SO risky... caught them playing football up on the beams above the mow and alley, 30 feet up in the air, running up and down the narrow roof beams throwing a ball back and forth-- one wrong step, it's a long way down to a VERY hard concrete floor! A neighbor of my BIL accidentally killed one of his kids... they were all riding on the tractor with him while he was backing up to a wagon to hitch up and one fell off the fender and his head got caught under the steel wheel as he was backing up before he could stop. Yup. A few years back, while I was up there for harvest, they had a Mennonite kid have his foot go through a corn head... he walked down the snouts of the running head, barefoot of course, to pull a plug out of the cornhead and probably lost his balance or something... it pulled his foot into the snapping rolls and fortunately for him, the ratchet clutch let go and started chattering... they got the head stopped, and called the EMT's to extract him, but they had to roll the cornhead backwards to roll his foot up and out of the snapping rolls to get him out. OUCH! Mennonite guy wanted to strip an old decaying tiny barn on my BIL's place for "barn wood" before tearing it down... He signed a "hold harmless" contract with my BIL and got started... he'd walk on the OUTSIDE of the roof of the old gambrel barn pulling off sheets of tin, because evidently even rusty old tin is worth big money to resellers now for fancy people to put up in their houses or whatever for "decor". Anyway, he was walking around like a bird on a wire with nothing under him but rusty tin turning loose from rotted wood that wouldn't hold a nail anymore... then he started pulling down the old barn siding wood and beams and stuff that were still salvageable. Never got any footage of him he was doing most of that before I got there for harvest one fall a few years ago. When he was done, he threaded a cable "haywire" through the barn to a couple of critical structural but too rotted to salvage beams that we hooked up to the Case 4890 and then pulled the barn down to collapse it and bury the remains... I have videos of it on my channel... Later! OL J R :)
At your farm 10 years more or less there was a plan to put up a silo with a used unload to feed cattle out. The bodybuilding and workout is find, but something happened to the original vision it's time to get back on track and move forward 👍
Boehm Farm Well wheel on and keep up the good work 👍 If You are comfortable with your setup don't change it . Neighbor had 16 by60 and silo unloader never worked right had 2 different brands alot of times good old arm strong to the rescue 👍
one year i overfilled to the top of the dome. packed it full as i could get it up there until the silo blower was blasting it back out that dome door. when it was time to open that silo in late february it had settled down to the very top of the staves. had to fork out 2 doors to make it work again -___-
Not as bad as they guy I heard about who left the unloader at the bottom of the silo and then filled it... forgot to winch it back up to the top... OOPS!!! LOL:) Later! OL J R :)
for the love of god get that silo unloader going.....ours breaks down about every 5 years on our 3 silos and we can`t live without it.....get her done.....CHEERS
No electricity run to it and they've never gotten it going (fixed whatever needs fixing). He's young enough all that work won't hurt him LOL:) Later! OL J R :)
Get that unloader working ... you have better things to do rather than pitching Also you will get sick. The only time I would pitch is to get rid of the top layer of mold and to level for the unloader
So you do not worry about the mold making the animals sick if they ate, then the mold in your lungs working up there cause the more you work out the harder you breath.
I don't have milk or peanut or whatever other allergies, full gluten, full fat, no restrictions. And I grew up in the silo. The moldy stuff is undergoing similar digestive processes as a cows stomach. It's less dusty than a grain bin and very warm in the winter.
Jacob, I do not mean to sound critical. I grew up in the 60-80s on beef farm in VA we had one old silo that was built w blocks and was all manual including being and newer one from the put a Badger brand unloader. Heck we went up in them when w filled them and leveled them out and stomped down as we went along. Even the unloader had to go up in alot w adjusting as went down a door. As far as the mold, after college and a Biology major and learning to check w research it was not as much of concern. You all do great job and enjoy watching videos of regular operations. Guys are very resourceful...
Won't take long to empty with that silage eating machine!!!! Best unloader made, Make sure motor is turning the right direction. or it will unscrew the shaft in chain drive gearbox.......You gonna wear out the switch with a wheel barrow!!!!!
Only dry grain is emptied from the bottom. Harvestores are the large blue silos. Those had a bottom unload system, which with the fibrous material, seems like a bad idea for silage.
Wait till you're 60 years old and then think back about all that manual labor while your back and knees ache every day . Find an easier way, I've been there done that paying for it now .
Yup... not the years but the mileage... I'm 50 and did the same sort of stuff he's doing back when I was his age... paying for it now. Course we're all ten feet tall and bulletproof when we're 18-25 LOL:) OL J R :)
i find what you do very irresponsible ,you must wear a respirator,my father died from complications of silo gas,i dont understand that 30years later people are still stupid enough to go in there without a respirator,SILOGAS KILLS
Oh boy, ... reminds me of my childhood and youth days, in the 50's, 60's. We had a 12X35 silo, and I was the one who did nearly all the forking, "throw down the silage," as we knew it. Most of our silage was grass silage, (grass/clover/vetch), put in the silo in late Spring. We did not start feeding out until November(?). Despite filling it to the brim, when we started feeding out, the top level settled a few feet. And, the material was packed in tight! We used a long-handled 4 tine fork, and usually a new one to start the season. Over the time to fork out the entire silo, the wooden handle would get bent from the leverage needed to break it loose. Very few dairy farmers had silo unloaders. We parked a two-wheeled trailer under the chute, so no wheelbarrows. The task was a daily one, feeding out the silage in the evening. The trailer load fed about 25 head of milking cows, and 10 heifers. A few times in later years, we did put in corn, and it is much easier to fork out of the silo. It does not pack nearly as tight as grass. BTW, if your silo is 16X55, you have about 11,000 cu ft. I found a couple of sources that put packed corn silage at 35#/cu ft, loose, 25#/cu ft. At 35, that would mean about 193 tons.
Your video sure brought back memories for me. At this point, I only raise crops. But when I was younger we dairy farmed and had 2 old wooden silos, neither had an unloader. So, everyday during the fall and winter, when I got home from my "off the farm" job, I had to fork silage down the chute. It's hard work, but you do what you have to do. I definitely enjoy your videos. Keep it up.
I don't know if I've seen a wooden silo still standing. At least I know know forking down silage will always go as planned. I am getting tired of fixing machines.
Thank you
Well, Most of the farmers around my area in western PA use mostly older equipment. And generally we find that we have to "fix it before we can use it". There are some that always have a lot of new equipment, however, the advantage we have is that our equipment is old, but is paid for. I'd rather do that than be in debt up to my ears.
Jacob I really enjoy ur videos it brings back so many memories when I was younger i live in Kentucky we milk cows raised tobacco it’s really nice to see young men stepping up to the plate and take farming for career and u help ur mom and dad I like that take care be careful around that equipment
Thank you. I'm glad you like what you see.
Love your channel, finally a farming channel thatdoes the same thing we do on our farm, can relate to a lot of things u do, even run same brand of machinery, keep the videos coming!
I am glad there's someone out there like us.
Hardest working farmer on youtube by far. I wish you all the best. That has to be hell in June and July.
We emptied the silo in mid June this year.
We had a 14x45 here at home, with a Badger Pack Drive from the dinasaur era, and Grandpa had a 16x40 and a 16x55. Those had a 2nd hand Badger pack drive, and the big silo got upgraded to a Badger ring drive. Ring drive beat the pack drives all to hell. Neighbor had Patz. Some reason the first 1 fell after it was raised. Dealer came put new Patz up. Hour after they left, it fell too. Dealer screwed something up. My Grand Uncle sold Badger. Dad and my cousin put a new Badger ring drive in, because Chuck wouldn't have the Patz dealer come back. Funny how not much later, John Deere dealer got rights to sell Patz from the Ford/NH dealer.
You sure are determined. I'll give you that. Nobody can ever say you don't work hard.
It's mostly a good thing, until I am too determined to squeeze too much into one day.
I've forked it by hand & ran an unloader. unloaders can be a pain @ times but can be well worth it on your back or if you have a belt feeder. But by you guys feeding it with a wheelbarrow, forking by hand makes a lot of sense & is the most cost effective I'd say. Did you put the unloader in there just as a "what if" scenario then?
We hung it with plans of running the wiring and finding a chain. The neighbor gave it too us, so their is no money tied up in it. I personally like the workout in the winter so I can thaw my bones.
I know you said the Amish built your silo, is the Amish who made all the blocks and steel too or is it a manufacturer silo but the Amish put them up? I was wondering cause that's about the size silo my buddy looking at making for his hobby farm and he's wondering who made it?
If anybody says you're lazy I'll cuss them out for you to be so Young you have a strong work ethic
I'll let you know about those nay sayers.
Wow! I be running wire up the shoot, but I admit I m proud of y’all! Thanks for sharing fellers
I hate electrical!
@@boehmfarm4276 LOL:) Not as much as I'd hate forking LOL:) Looks like too much work for me, but I'm a fat old man LOL:) Electrical is easy, particularly AC... Few guys backgrounding calves have done bunker silage down here but that's about it. 99% of cattle people just do dry hay. Later! OL J R :)
my grandpa spent his younger years doing that. he was like a kid on christmas when they built a silo with a unloader.
I think a fancy feed bunk system would be delightful, then the unloader.
We just opened our large silos today.
Had to push the silo matic unloader around for a bit until the gummy stuff went through. Our two 70 by 16 silos hold 180 tones each.
But I know what you mean about a work out still fork 70 tones of silage out of one our smaller silos at the feed lot.
How much did it cost to build a silo like yours I want a 20×80
Ten years ago is a bit before my financial memory, but I think it was in the range of Andrew Jackson and 1000 of his twins.
In one of your earlier videos you said you had like 80 rounds to pick up for free, did you ever go pick that up?
We are slowly collecting them a wagon load at a time. They are the most insufferable to move because they are three years old, and the farmer who made them used as little net wrap as possible. The bale spear doesn't penetrate them well either.
Of all people i should know but i never really got taught much about it but how exactly do you make silage just grind up plant material?
Yep, this is chopped up corn bits.
Chopped fine with enough moisture still in it to support yeasts to ferment it. Pack it in as tight as you can get it (in a silo it packs itself under its own weight, in a bunker silo you pack it down with the heaviest tractor you got driving on it over and over again as each load is dumped) with the idea to get as much oxygen (air) out of it as possible so it doesn't spoil or rot. Naturally occurring yeasts take over and ferment it, converting some of the plant sugars (and starches in the case of corn) into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Some of the alcohol will use up the available oxygen and convert into vinegar, lowering the pH (making it acidic) until the combination of alcohol concentration and acidity from the vinegar conversion kills off the yeasts and essentially "pickles" the silage. SO long as oxygen is excluded, it will store that way with very little deterioration or loss. That was the purpose of the blue Harvestore silos-- they were ceramic coated steel and sealed up so were airtight, with an "expansion bag" at the top to allow for differing air pressure as the silage outgassed carbon dioxide, but yet keep the silo gases and the outside air separate by the bag acting as a "bladder" to allow air into/out of the silo as needed by expanding or contracting the bag to equalize pressure. The old stave silos like this one weren't airtight and were open to the atmosphere at the top, so the stuff on top got pretty funky depending on how long it sat. Bunker silos or pit silos (in the ground) are usually sealed off from the air by covering the pile or pit with plastic and sealing it down with dirt around the edges, and keeping it tight against the pile with old tires for weight. Oxygen is the great enemy of silage as it breaks down the fermentation byproducts (alcohol and vinegar, or acetic acid) and that allows bacteria to start rotting the material, so it's no longer preserved but rotting. If you're feeding it takes awhile for this porcess to happen, so as long as you're scooping out fresh silage every day, it doesn't really have time to take hold. In bunkers, it's important that you "deface" the silage every day, as oxygen starts soaking in from the exposed face of the silage, and keep the tarps/tires as close to the face as possible. Nice thing about bunker/pit silage is you just feed with a tractor and front end loader by scooping silage off the front of the pile every day. Later! OL J R :)
Oh, and then there's "balage" or "silage bales". Basically bale the material while it's still pretty green (usually about 50% moisture down to about 30% moisture, the more moisture the heavier it is due to water content and the more it "settles" but too little moisture and you can have fermentation problems; too much moisture and you can get rotting from anaerobic bacteria). Basically making wet bales of hay, and then either feeding them through a tubeline wrapper which wraps them in plastic sheet circling round and round the bales as they are deposited on the machine and pushed together into a long line wrapped in plastic sheet as the line is pushed off the back of the wrapper onto the ground for storage, OR individually wrapped by a wrapping machine that takes each bale and rotates it as plastic rolls revolve around it, wrapping the entire bale in plastic on all sides. Individual bales are then moved and stacked with "pincher" type bale clamps, as forks or spears would poke holes in the plastic or tear it. Individual wrappers use a lot more plastic, but bales can be moved and fed individually, so it's more flexible. Individual wrappers are also smaller machines that have even been mounted on the back of round balers (McHale makes one) though many are drawn behind another tractor to the field to wrap bales after they're baled up. Tubeline wrappers use less plastic, since the bales are pressed up against each other to exclude air and then only the round sides are covered in plastic (or square sides for large square balage) but require the hay be brough to the wrapper and loaded one by one as it makes the row of bales, and the bales be located and stacked end-to-end in one particular spot, and they cannot be moved without tearing the plastic apart. Usually either a plastic cap is inserted on one end to start and then finish the row of bales, or cheaper is to use a bale of dry hay at each end to cap the row of bales and stop oxygen getting in... either way usually the first bale or two on either end is a little funky. So long as the plastic remains intact, the bales will ferment inside the plastic as the naturally occurring yeasts feed on the sugars in the forage, producing alcohol, carbon dioxide, and acetic acid (vinegar) which essentially "pickles" the forage. Birds and varmints can often peck holes in the plastic, so one must be vigilant and walk the rows every so often and tape up any holes to prevent rotted forage around the hole from oxygen incursion.
There's also bagged silage, where a special bagger machine can take silage from the wagons and pack it into a long, tube-like bag about 5-6 feet in diameter, and pack it tight enough to exclude air. When filled the bag end is then sealed off and the silage ferments in the bag as it would in a silo or bunker or pit. Later! OL J R :)
Is that stuff you're forking from that pile moldy? If so, not bad enough that you can't feed it?
It's a little moldy on top. But if you mix it in with the other stuff, the cows will eat it.
my gosh....i'd be getting the unloader going. i've thrown cs out of one silo as a kid. dig out the next partially covered door and open it. makes it a little easier.
I always dig out the door, I hate having to lift a little as I throw.
the unloader still has to be helped and you would still have to do the doors but they are pretty easy compared to the fork method
This is about the only way I can warm up in the winter; a quick little workout to get my blood flowing.
What does it cost to put up a silo? Sure is a lot of concrete.
It's many blocks. And if you saw the Amish who built it, no one would get after me about being unsafe.
Boehm Farm I don't think it's unsafe.
Boehm Farm after they got it up did they walk around the top of the silo or do a handstand I hear they do crazy things like that
About $100k to put up a 40x90 poured silo, not counting pouring the pad and an unloader if you don’t have an unloader.
@@boehmfarm4276 LOL for sure... Amish are funny that way. I've seen and heard so many stories. Lots of Amish and Mennonites around my BIL's place in northern Indiana. Basically they take all kinds of STUPID chances- what I mean by that is, we farmers are in what is by definition a risky business... in fact only loggers surpass us in number of accidents, followed by cops IIRC last time I read the data. Anyway, we all take chances every day, but there's "not too risky" chances and just DUMB stuff people do that get them killed... Amish/Mennonites take those kinds of chances ALL the time. I've heard they believe that God protects them; that if they're "meant to die" in a stupid accident that it was "just their appointed time" and "God called them home" so "why not take chances?" Kinda stupid but there's a lot of circular logic to their thinking from what I've seen, heard, and learned. I read a guy on the Hay Talk forum telling how he hired Amish teens to stack hay in his barn, a good old high mow gambrel barn so typical on Midwest farms... He said he finally had to quit hiring them, because they were just SO risky... caught them playing football up on the beams above the mow and alley, 30 feet up in the air, running up and down the narrow roof beams throwing a ball back and forth-- one wrong step, it's a long way down to a VERY hard concrete floor! A neighbor of my BIL accidentally killed one of his kids... they were all riding on the tractor with him while he was backing up to a wagon to hitch up and one fell off the fender and his head got caught under the steel wheel as he was backing up before he could stop. Yup. A few years back, while I was up there for harvest, they had a Mennonite kid have his foot go through a corn head... he walked down the snouts of the running head, barefoot of course, to pull a plug out of the cornhead and probably lost his balance or something... it pulled his foot into the snapping rolls and fortunately for him, the ratchet clutch let go and started chattering... they got the head stopped, and called the EMT's to extract him, but they had to roll the cornhead backwards to roll his foot up and out of the snapping rolls to get him out. OUCH!
Mennonite guy wanted to strip an old decaying tiny barn on my BIL's place for "barn wood" before tearing it down... He signed a "hold harmless" contract with my BIL and got started... he'd walk on the OUTSIDE of the roof of the old gambrel barn pulling off sheets of tin, because evidently even rusty old tin is worth big money to resellers now for fancy people to put up in their houses or whatever for "decor". Anyway, he was walking around like a bird on a wire with nothing under him but rusty tin turning loose from rotted wood that wouldn't hold a nail anymore... then he started pulling down the old barn siding wood and beams and stuff that were still salvageable. Never got any footage of him he was doing most of that before I got there for harvest one fall a few years ago. When he was done, he threaded a cable "haywire" through the barn to a couple of critical structural but too rotted to salvage beams that we hooked up to the Case 4890 and then pulled the barn down to collapse it and bury the remains... I have videos of it on my channel...
Later! OL J R :)
At your farm 10 years more or less there was a plan to put up a silo with a used unload to feed cattle out. The bodybuilding and workout is find, but something happened to the original vision it's time to get back on track and move forward 👍
Sometimes we're just chasing projects. I'd like to get the unloader running, but we'd still be using wheel barrows.
Boehm Farm Well wheel on and keep up the good work 👍 If You are comfortable with your setup don't change it . Neighbor had 16 by60 and silo unloader never worked right had 2 different brands alot of times good old arm strong to the rescue 👍
Hi enjoyed the video,didn't know towers were hand unloaded most silage here in the uk is bales or clamped the few towers here have unloaders
I am sure most have loaders here, but that's just more machine to maintain.
It is kit costs a lot to maintain.we aim to spend on kit that earns money or makes the job easier to do
How may times have you hit your head on that unloader so far?
Oh. maybe once or twice. I usually know it's above me.
one year i overfilled to the top of the dome. packed it full as i could get it up there until the silo blower was blasting it back out that dome door. when it was time to open that silo in late february it had settled down to the very top of the staves. had to fork out 2 doors to make it work again -___-
wow ! can't believe it didn't settle more than that.
That's definitely making the most of the space!!! I like it. If it didn't settle lower, did you fill the silo slow?
filled it, then made the silage pile then filled the silo some more
Not as bad as they guy I heard about who left the unloader at the bottom of the silo and then filled it... forgot to winch it back up to the top... OOPS!!! LOL:) Later! OL J R :)
You can work all that bacon and eggs fried potatoes 😋!,,,, off that’s a good work off 👍🏻 Take care guys. LCW. 🐝
Every meal is earned a round here.
for the love of god get that silo unloader going.....ours breaks down about every 5 years on our 3 silos and we can`t live without it.....get her done.....CHEERS
That Patz unloader is doing what it does best, keeping the roof from blowing off... He's doing it the much faster way.
Well ok....keeping the roof from blowing off....I just don`t see it but then that`s me.....CHEERS
Fixing a silage fork seems to be easier that dealing with a another machine. After today, i am fed up with machines.
Did you evet get or find the chain for the patz
No
Can you send me the model number to me so I can see if I can find one here??
I believe it's a 3c??
Ok thanks. I'll check to see if theres a chain here in Wisconsin
You need have mask on, our neighbor ended up with farmers lung from silo work. He's 32 yrs old
Why don’t you use the silo unloader ,
No electricity run to it and they've never gotten it going (fixed whatever needs fixing). He's young enough all that work won't hurt him LOL:) Later! OL J R :)
How much land do y'all have
Between owned and rented, with hay, 250 acres.
How tall is your silo
60'
I hope you are careful about silo gas since you just filled it.
We fed out of the wagon for a couple weeks and then ran the blower for ventilation.
OK I can believe that you always work hard on the farm😅
It's never lazy day around the farm.
That's a job for a young man for sure.
No young ladies here.
Get a ring drive unloader and you don’t have to level it
A yeah I know I worked on the farm 😅 doing the same thing ! it was great🐄
I would be scared to fall through the floor of chop you’re standing on... but we do balage so it’s probably safer then I think!
It is very safe, must more solid than grain.
if you level and tarp the silage after filling you eliminate what your doing most of the time
We start feeding out of the silo almost right after we fill it. There's no spoilage.
Get that unloader working ... you have better things to do rather than pitching
Also you will get sick. The only time I would pitch is to get rid of the top layer of mold and to level for the unloader
How tall is the silo
Said 55’
So you do not worry about the mold making the animals sick if they ate, then the mold in your lungs working up there cause the more you work out the harder you breath.
steve mondal nah it’s all good I fork silos out too he’s a farmer he’s tough
I don't have milk or peanut or whatever other allergies, full gluten, full fat, no restrictions. And I grew up in the silo. The moldy stuff is undergoing similar digestive processes as a cows stomach. It's less dusty than a grain bin and very warm in the winter.
Jacob, I do not mean to sound critical. I grew up in the 60-80s on beef farm in VA we had one old silo that was built w blocks and was all manual including being and newer one from the put a Badger brand unloader. Heck we went up in them when w filled them and leveled them out and stomped down as we went along. Even the unloader had to go up in alot w adjusting as went down a door. As far as the mold, after college and a Biology major and learning to check w research it was not as much of concern. You all do great job and enjoy watching videos of regular operations. Guys are very resourceful...
Easiest type of unloader to work on.
My body, the silage fork or the Patz?
Boehm Farm patz model 98.
Won't take long to empty with that silage eating machine!!!! Best unloader made, Make sure motor is turning the right direction. or it will unscrew the shaft in chain drive gearbox.......You gonna wear out the switch with a wheel barrow!!!!!
That's part of the reason I am ok with forking silage, we'd be turning the unloader on and off at least five times per feeding.
?? why r u doing that for, don't ppl ussally take from the bottom. r u sure u weren't at the Pub before dreaming up this job??
You either want this to be grain or a Harvestore silo. Grain goes in the short metal bins and Harvestore are a cool expensive nightmare for silage.
geeee what does that even mean.i am more lost then b4
Only dry grain is emptied from the bottom.
Harvestores are the large blue silos. Those had a bottom unload system, which with the fibrous material, seems like a bad idea for silage.
Boehm Farm harvestore silos are awesome, until the unloader breaks down. Then they are a huge pain in the *ss
Ryan Grider why the fuck would you not just have a silage pit/bunker
Nothing smells better than silage.
Nothing at all. Not even bacon.
Why don't you use your unloder
No electric and it needs the defacing chain. We got the unloader for free when the neighbor's silo fell.
Why did your neighbors silo fall
Do you use the unloader
Not yet
I love farming
Me too
That job sucks the farm i worked on had a 24x60 that i had to do that to
24' is a long throw!
Wait till you're 60 years old and then think back about all that manual labor while your back and knees ache every day . Find an easier way, I've been there done that paying for it now .
It's all about fitness level. I see these old guys running marathons, they can't have too much joint pain.
Yup... not the years but the mileage... I'm 50 and did the same sort of stuff he's doing back when I was his age... paying for it now. Course we're all ten feet tall and bulletproof when we're 18-25 LOL:) OL J R :)
Need to sharpen your knives on the harvester
Knives are always sharp. Being a year old video, we turned the shear bar this year and it made all the difference.
Nice vid
Thank you
PEOPLE NEVERRRR WALK IN A SILO ITS A SAFETY HAZARD
i need 2 do what ur doing. im 2 fat....lol
I doubt my cross fit friends would survive this workout.
lol
Hi there
Hi
👍👌🇨🇦❤
That's dangerous
You need to work smarter not harder 👨🏻🌾
Then you have to eat smarter and watch what you eat.
First
Twice in a row.
Fuck that.
Get the unloader fixed.
Beware of silo gas
Silo has never farted before.
i find what you do very irresponsible ,you must wear a respirator,my father died from complications of silo gas,i dont understand that 30years later people are still stupid enough to go in there without a respirator,SILOGAS KILLS
Irresponsible is having animals and not being able to feed them. We keep ours fed.
FEEDING ANIMALS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH PERSONAL SAFETY,A LOT OF PEOPLE DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE DANGERS OF SILO GAS
Yep, the first three weeks are the dangerous fermentation period.
have you started cutting beans yet
Unfortunately, no. Between, dry down, rain and muddling through repairs, we aren't rushing to market for low prices.