New Plastic Liners For Upright Silos

New Plastic Liners For Upright Silos CROP STORAGE Silos 50 If you re looking for low-cost sealed storage for high moisture corn how about putting a plastic liner in your conventional concrete stave silo? We re really pleased with it reports Canadian dairy farmer Jerry Row of Curries Ont He s used plastic liners in his 14 by 45-ft concrete silo for the past 3 years The Sealtite liners he uses are manufactured by Chantler and Chantler of Mississauga Ont The liners can be used in any upright silo ù wood concrete stave or whatever ù that s in good shape and properly hooped for storing high moisture corn Cost of the liners made of 6 mil plastic range from $208 30 for a 16 by 50 silo; $228 50 for a 24 by 50; and $442 55 for a liner to fit a 24 by 100 ft silo Here courtesy of the Ontario Milk Producers magazine is how dairy-man Jerry Row uses plastic liners in his 14 by 45 ft concrete silo to get low cost storage for high-moisture corn: The liner which is suspended in-side the silo before filling is tied after it s full so that it s sealed The key is to make sure that nothing damages the liner and breaks the seal It is a fragile system and it has to be thought out really carefully to be sure that you don t put any strain on the plastic Jerry explains The Rows covered the silo doors with a roll of tar paper to eliminate any rough surfaces the first year they decided to use the system Jerry also did some work on the roof One of the important pieces of equipment in the system is the auger Jerry s is a small 4 in one inside a heavier piece of pipe Flanges are welded to the pipe and those are bolted through the silo floor so that this outside pipe is stationary The inside pipe with the auger can slide in or out Jerry explains see drawing Another important piece of equipment in the system is what Jerry calls the agitator rod This is a rod that we can use to shake the corn loose over the auger if it bridges he explains It s a 3/4 -in pipe which has the same type of flange on it as the auger pipe also bolted through the silo doors A half inch rod runs through the pipe and has a handle on each end We can push that rod in or out or turn it to shake the corn loose We ve had to use it some You need something like that with that small an auger Jerry says It is important to seal both the agitator rod and the auger and Jerry has done this using a piece of inner tube from a bicycle and some hose clamps In spite of all his careful planning there is one element of the system that Jerry would like to improve He recommends changing a flat bottom silo Put a barrel in the middle and then cone it up to a 45? angle around the edges This way most of the corn will run right out of it he says The bag is suspended by two plywood hoops which are 4 27 metres 14 ft around the size of the silo The hoops are strips of 5/16 inch plywood about eight in wide and are flat around the silo The bag is clamped at intervals between the two hoops which are lowered to the bottom of the silo for this purpose Jerry explains The bag must be well sealed around the auger Jerry cuts a hole in the bag once he has it near the top of the silo then slides the bag over the pipe that the auger is in A seal is made by using plastic and tar paper over the flanges and the silo door The weight of the corn pushes the bag up against the plastic on the door This creates a tight seal Last year Jerry tried another innovation to try to improve the seal We put a new bag in but this time we left the old bag in We clamped it back into the hoops along with the new one and took it up This gives extra protection against any roughness in the silo If it s a rough silo I think the two-bag method is probably worthwhile After filling Jerry unclamps the new bag removes it from the hoops and ties it off with wire Although the bag is no longer in the hoops it is still suspended by the silo unloader cable From this point forward maintaining the seal is the key to the success of the plastic silo liner system We have had holes in it every year I think Last year we only found one little hole You will findthat the corn starts to get a bit musty coming down It smells a little off There is enough slack in the bag that you can go up and walk around on top of the corn and find the hole and patch it with timsmith s tape explains Jerry For more information Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Chantler & Chantler 880 lakeshore Road East Box 129 Port Credit Ont L5G4L7 Canada ph 416-274-2533

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