As August builds in on us our energy moves to that time of year where our stress and sleepless nights seem unending. As the corn reaches it’s maturity, we start prepping the chopper, wagons and silos. The silo unloader is raised to the top of the silo, doors are placed in placed and the blower is hooked up. The chopper will load the wagon with chopped up corn. Not just the ear, but the whole stalk. The wagon is brought to the silo, and will self unload into the blower. It is blown up threw the pipework to the top of the silo the it falls slowly filling the silo. Silage that is to green can cause the silo to weaken and fall. To dry will have less nutritional value.
So if the tractors, choppers, blowers do most of the work, where is the danger and stress? Someone has to climb the silo to the top, and not just once. As I unload a wagon I have two PTO shafts on either side of me. The blower has an auger that pulls the silage into the blower.
Those PTO shafts average 8 ft per SECOND. It takes the human 3/4 or 0.75 of a second to react That’s literally about a blink of an eye to react. I am careful to not wear loose fitting clothes, shirts buttoned, shirt tails tucked in, and no jumping over reaching over the shafts. There are so many moving parts that a blink of an eye is just to late.