Dallas Center IA 515-720-2463 | It was a lot of work. Lucky me as I was born late enough.
I remember the silo being filled by the corn binder in the field, then chopped by a cutter at the silo.
That would have been a few years before 1948.
Dad hired a custom operator with forage harvester and silage blower in 1948.
In 1949 he purchased a brand new Allis-Chalmers forage
harvester and a blower.
I assume some green corn was cut with corn knifes, hauled to a silo and ran thru a silage cutter to fill silos. But I doubt much was done that way.
A corn binder was used to cut the green corn. Then the bundles were loaded onto a hay rack.
Hauled to the silo, where the bundles were ran thru the cutter.
The cutter blowed the chopped corn into the silo.
Corn binder:
A U-Tube of one running:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA3zbJNvWuo
Binders were first pulled with horses. Hence ground driven.
The binder in the U-Tube is ground drive.
Later there were PTO corn binders. And ones that did two rows.
You will see nice pretty pictures of corn in shocks. That corn is not going into a silo, but is left in the field to finish drying.
In the winter it was hauled in and feed to cattle.
For a silo the green corn shocks were loaded onto a hayrack right away.
There may have been a bundle carrier on the binder. Held a few bundles, so they could be dropped in one place. Made for less work.
Also I have seen pictures of a corn binder working with a elevator along side. Being pulled along side was a hayrack.
Like loading bales on a rack pulled behind a square baler - A lot less work than picking them up off of the ground.
Just saw pictures, I have never seen a side loader.
The Cutter at the silo:
The cutter was much like a silage blower, just had knives to cut the corn. Then paddles blew it on up into the silo.
The bundles were laid on a chain conveyor, feed rolls pressed it down and feed the bundle into the knives.
The cutter was belt powered. I doubt if much was don’t in the steam days. Pretty sure most cutters were tractor powered, or gas engine.
I remember a big crew. Dad filled his father in law’s trench silo as well. And several brother in laws were there on the crew.
The trench silo was filled by hanging the blower pipe on telephone poles along the side of the silo.
Will see if I can find a picture of a silage cutter, will then post it.
Found some pictures.
Top one is a ground driven one row binder. It has a bundle carrier.
Second picture is a two row PTO powered binder.
Lower picture is a silage cutter. At the silo, not doing corn. But he best I could find.
Edited by Robert W Greif 2/2/2017 19:08
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How were the silo's filled days gone by?
