There were silos before the days of blowers, but they were mostly pits dug into a bank.  I have seen a few pictures of  bank barns with a silo in the middle (not much taller than the roof of the barn.  The bank would have gotten the load most of the way up; I don't know if they built a ramp or used the hay hoist somehow.  Either way it would have been a slow job, but they probably only needed feed for a few dozen head at the most.