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Latimer Iowa | The bladders are there for when the silo is not all of the way full. If it hasn't been used in years it is unlikely the breather bags are still good. The bags crack as they age. You either need to fill it all the way and pull the bags out and then empty it quickly over a few days with the top lids open, or have a qualified company come out and pressure test the structure and likely install new bags. In reality, it would be good to pressure test it regardless of the situation to be sure corn doesn't spoil because of leaks.
When the silos are clear full there is no airspace to expand and contract and the air bags do not do anything. We used to fill multiple Harvestores with high moisture corn on neighbors farms and then haul to our Rochester sealed silos. The Rochesters did not have breather bags as the concrete silos didn't need them. Cement colored instead of dark blue so they don't heat and cool as much. The first time we would fill another neighbors harvestore for additional corn storage I would go in an take the breather bags out and then cap the vent openings to get more capacity, and prevent the bags from getting pulled down in the corn and plugging the unloader.
Did this as a 10-15 year old kid as I would fit through the hole. We would tie bags up, fill to the bottom of the bags, then i would go it and cut the bags out, push them out to my dad on the top, and shimmy out the hole again. Gave about another 5 foot of storage. Sometimes if they were overfilled you could push back into the hole and crawl around inside, pulling corn down, enough to get the roof scooped off. You can get another 250 bushels or so in if you have someone to run more corn up when you are inside scooping but this is not a recommended practice. The high moisture corn in a Harvestore settles slightly so when you would be crawling around on the corn you can feel the corn settle and vibrate a bit. Kind of unnerving as a kid, 80 foot up inside a silo and feeling it shake.
An auger is fine if it will reach. Need to fill into the center hole. | |
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High moisture corn in harvestore.
