Our first silo was a 12X30 poured concrete put up in 1911 by my grandfather. My dad was 10 years old. It had a 10 foot deep pit so the silo was only 20 feet high above the ground. Inside the barn the pit was only 3 feet deep as we had a barn built into a hill on the north side. My dad told me about digging that pit. Red clay all the way down. Silo fillers were used in that day powered by engines on wheeled carts pulled around by horses. Corn was cut by hand with a corn knife. Had a sharp curved cutting blade with a handle about 2 feet long. Bundles were made by tying corn stalks together with a single corn stalk. As the years went by, corn binders became common and tractors as well but for the most part, the tractor was used to power the silo filler and horses were used for binder and wagon pulling.
The first pull behind single row corn chopper I saw was a McCormick Deering that was very badly designed. PTO driven it took a Farmall M to power it. That was in 1949. Fox choppers were all powered by a mounted engine at that time. As they were made in nearby Appleton they were popular around here. One could hear those engines running for miles, especially in the evening. Many were owned by custom operators. Our first one was a John Deere PTO powered chopper that had the cutting knives installed on the fan blades which, in effect did two jobs in one. I chopped the incoming corn and blew it also. Quite easily powered by a John Deere A or similar sized tractor.
One thing to keep in mind was that all corn at that time was planted in wider rows of about 42 inches and we were only dealing with about 12000 plants per acre. That John Deere chopper was advertised to be able to chop 10 to 15 tons of corn silage per hour. A 12X30 silo holds around 70-75 tons. It took about 6 +/- acres to fill that silo but then we put up a temporary snow fence silo that held more than the concrete silo did.
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Today's Featured Article - Talk of the Town: Winterizing Engines - To Drain or Not to Drain? - by Russ Berry. What is this strange attraction I have to equipment and machinery? How did I get this way? I came from the suburbs and own a small horse farm in rural Loudoun County, Virginia. You can call me a "weekend farmer." The local farmers do. Does it bother me? No. I am just happy to have their friendship. At least the word "farmer" is in my title. But what is the attraction? How can I explain the sensation and exhilaration I feel when I turn the key and hear the engine come to life (most
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