Electric-Powered Silage Box

Electric-Powered Silage Box LIVESTOCK Feeding Equipment 21-5-11 Dale Wilcox set up a stationary electric-powered silage box outside his dairy barn that holds 1 ton of haylage. It has made it much easier for the Cobleskill, N.Y., farmer to fill the small feed cart he uses to carry feed to cows. He used an old 16-ft. long by 4-ft. deep silage wagon to build the stationary silage handler. He cut it in half lengthwise to re-duce overall width to 4 ft., which is the width of one apron chain. "I converted it to electric power using a 3 hp, 220-volt electric motor so I can turn it on and off from the feed cart with a switch rather than climbing on and off a tractor. "The trickiest part was getting the apron to turn at the proper speed. The driveshaft turns at about 8 rpm's, which is just fast enough to fill my 35 bu. silage cart in 30 seconds with virtually no spillage or waste." The silage wagon is elevated on an old spreader frame so Wilcox can drive his cart under it to load. Silage, he notes, falls directly into the cart. He's fed 700 tons of silage from his bunker silo through the wagon with no problems in the three years since he built it. He simply fills the box with silage from his bunk silo with a tractor and loader. Out-of-pocket expense was about $200, mostly for sprockets, chains and bearings. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dale Wilcox, R.D. 1, Box 460, Cobleskill, N.Y. 12043.

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