[AT] Silo roofs

[David Myers]

On my Grandfathers farm corn silage used no roof and he actually wanted the water to rain in.  He told me the fermented silage helped the milk, not sure if he meant production or fat content.  I still remember the unique smell of the last of the feed.  
Haylage, as he termed hay silage, I don't remember much about.  He did put some up but I don't even know if it was every year or what.  He had 3 small old silos, one ceramic block and the other 2 concrete block & hoop and I remember only 2 had roofs.  When he built the standing barm and actual dairy parlor he put in 2 new poured concrete 60ft silos with no roofs and the tripods were for the self unloaders.  Feeding required flipping a couple of switches, all powered all the way through the feed bunks.  Living high in the early 60's.
David

Sent from my iPad

> On Oct 26, 2014, at 6:43 PM, Carl Gogol <cgogol at twcny.rr.com> wrote:
> 
> Dean-  Manly silos where I grew up did not have roofs, they were an extra 
> cost item at the time of construction.
> A roof on the typical concrete stave silo is a no-fastener lock together 
> assembly of curved aluminized steel (?)  sheet wedges that can structurally 
> support themselves, shed snow and not blow off in most storms.  They were 
> captured at the top of the silo behind the top most hoop and further shimmed 
> with driven aluminum u-shaped wedges to conform to the flat sided staves 
> more tightly.  They were assembled once the silo was constructed and the 
> interior elevator scaffold was still in place.  Seems like wooden roofs went 
> out with wooden silos.  The aluminum / metal roofs did not have a skeleton 
> and the tripod was, as has already been mentioned, the support for the top 
> unloading silage auger/blower.  I remember this from the construction of our 
> own silo in about 1959.
> Carl
> 
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: Dean VP
> Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2014 4:10 PM
> To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group'
> Subject: Re: [AT] Silo roofs
> 
> Dean,
> 
> My guess is that that silo has never had a roof. I would think it would take 
> more of a frame than what
> is there to support a roof. And I agree the current frame was used to raise 
> and lower the silo
> unloader or chipper  Could also be used to raise the silage blower pipes. 
> That is what the winch is
> for. Raise it for filling and then lower it to start unloading.  Corn silage 
> silos where I was raised
> typically didn't have a roof but hay silage silos usually had a roof.  That 
> may be why you have one of
> each.  Hay had a tendency to spoil due to moisture easier than corn silage
> 
> Dean VP
> Snohomish, WA
> 
> The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right 
> time, but also to leave
> unsaid  the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com 
> [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of
> Dean Vinson
> Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2014 9:35 AM
> To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group'
> Subject: [AT] Silo roofs
> 
> Very common around here to see old concrete silos with no roofs, such as the
> 1950-vintage silo on my farm:
> http://www.vinsonfarm.net/photos/farm_and_goat_20141025.jpg
> 
> I've been assuming the roof blew off in a storm at some point, but now I'm
> wondering if there was ever one there to begin with.   I have an aerial
> photo of this place from 1965, and just like today there's no roof on the
> big silo.   But in the 1965 photo, a tractor and silo blower are parked at
> the base of the silo, hooked to the fill pipe, and a herd of Holsteins is
> ambling about in the pasture.    That's only 15 years after the silo was
> built, and it sure looks to still be in active use, but there's no roof.
> 
> At the top of this silo--and of several other very similar concrete silos I
> see as I drive around the local area--there's a steel frame that forms a
> three-sided pyramid.   A length of steel cable hangs straight down from the
> peak of that pyramid, and some more of that same cable is wound around the
> remains of an electric winch mounted down about head-height on one side of
> the silo, so I assume it was the hoist for the silo unloader.   But did the
> pyramid also support a roof, or did this type of silo never have a roof?
> 
> Dean Vinson
> Saint Paris, Ohio
> 
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