Silo for shredded corn stalks question

[FarmboyBill]

Im thinking fo buying a husker/shredder and corn binder and running my corn through the shredder and saveing the ears for the crib. Dont know what kind of silo to build for it. It has to be relitively inexpensive. I am 61 so I dont think I would like climbing, as with a regular silo for the next 10/20 yrs. . It would have to be made so that i could pull a wagon up to it and scoop it full without haveing to walk any distance to do that. If it were a silo built of rabbit wire or poultry wire and clamped end to end to gain highth, do u think the shredded stalks would fall down as they would be dryer than regular silage, or not. In my mind is setting 2 telegraph poles around 3ft apart. steepeling the wire to it, and using boards to follow the silage as it rose up in the opening Nailing the one that is 6ft high so I could pull out the rest under it and scoop it out if/as it fell down. I would use 8ft poultry wire end to end and use rabbit clamps to hold them together. How I would ever go more than 2 sections high i dont know less id fill it and stand on the silage when it was a floot lower then the top edge and run another highth of the wire, If the silage wouldnt keep falling down id be out as I wouldnt want to climb up every day to get it. Would a bigger diameter more guarantee that the silage would fall down more readly than a smaller dia silo? By getting the corn off the field as fast as possible, I can put in another crop (Haygrazer). Possibly I could catch a rain. I would at least make one cutting before frost, and have it high enough for green manure plowdown.

[rambler]

Ok, figured out the 2 telephone poles & boards refers to the 'door' part. That sounds good.

Silage is typically 60+ percent moisture, and you won't be able to keep that in chicken netting. It needs to be in an airtight structure to allow it to create 'pickling' juice & keep.

To keep as dry, it needs to be around 15% moisture, then you are just piling up dry hay?

Anything in between and it's not going to store well.

I'm not sure what you are trying to go for here, and how much volume are we talkng about? How many acres of cornstalks are we talking about?

--->Paul

[Bearfootfarm]

I think you need a silage pit:

http://www.google.com/search?complete=1&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=silage+pit&aq=f&oq=

[sammyd]

If you are taking off dry ear corn I'll assume the stalks are dry as well.
Find a book and learn how to make stacks as they did in the old days. You don't need a silo for dry stuff, just a good stack. Or you could put up a couple rows of snow fence and get an old blower to blow the stuff into a stack. We did something like this with really crappy hay we used for bedding one year. Blew it against a machine shed wall.

[FarmboyBill]

Ill cut it when the green is nearly gone outa the stalk. Itall be dry, dry, dry. It still has to have enough water put with it so as to form it into a ball and it stay there. IF you can find snow fence. its HIGH HIGH HIGH $$$$$$$$$$$$. and IT WOULD BE WAY HEAVY getting higher and higher. In a pit, id have to walk into it further and further to bring out the stuff to the wagon, as the silo wouldnt be anywhere near the feeding area for the cows, which is my big garden. Ill feed them through winter and sell them when the grass starts to show. Then plant the garden. Ill be planting 8 acres corn

[sammyd]

If your gonna reconstitute your stalks then you need a real silo since you'll be making silage.
If you pile it you'll need a way to pack it so it will ferment properly. Unpacked silage will rot.
I've seen setups that used an old blower to pack it in plastic sheets that have been sealed on the end and edges. Had a big hoop thing welded to the blower to hold the plastic. A real poor mans bagger.
Or if drainage isn't a big problem pile it, pack it, cover with plastic using dirt to seal the ends and sides, and feed out using an electric fence wire to limit their access, move the wire ahead and roll back the plastic sheet daily.
How many animals are you feeding out? Enough to keep the feed from spoiling once you uncover and start to feed?
You should get 24-32 tons of feed from the stalks following the tables I've seen.

[DaleK]

You're setting yourself up to either kill your cattle, or make them very sick. Either make silage, or dry bales. In between and the mold and toxins are unavoidable. Cutting it when the green is just about out of the stalk isn't dry enough to store dry, and usually isn't wet enough to store as silage.

[rambler]

I think you are somewhere in between dry fodder & wet silage, and will only be making a moldy mess. This does not sound like a good plan at all.

You need to get the stalks drier & stora as dry fodder (that will owrk for you);

Or harvest wetter & put in a tightly packed & air-free container/ plastic sealed mound.

There is no in between.

You could get a corn stalk chopper, (may be called a shredder - a rotory cutter deal) and mash up & cut the stalks into bits, allow to dry a few days, and harvest as you would dry hay. (Here, typically rake & round bale, but you can pick up manually if you wish).

This would then need to be kept away from rain, if you are making loose stacks, so you would likely need a bit of a roof or plastic over it, tho in round bales or if you are in a real dry winter area could keep on it's own.

I see no value in trying to add water & store in chicken netting; it will mold because it's exposed to air' the netting would rust & rot from the juices; but it will bust out before it rusts because silage is _heavy_ and experta a lot of force.

Dry fodder is easier to handle, and easier to make in your dry climate. It is easier to feed. Making cornstalks into silage is difficult, without the corn it does not like to ferment properly. Adding water back into the stalks is hard; silage ferments from the natural juices, not from the outside in.

This needs to be re-thought out...... Making use of the stalks & leaves is a good idea, but not your way. It will not work.

--->Paul

[FarmboyBill]

Thanks for responding. I reread page 171 in my Morrison and Morrison, Feeds and feeding, and realized that I read it wrong, that there should be as little as possible moisture in the shredded corn. That should make it 70% or so lighter. Ive got one salt water well, and thought to make a plastic shot bucket and bring the water up with it ointo a plastic barrel on a wagon and pour it into a plastic sprinkler after feeding the stover sprinkling the water on it to cause the cows to want it. Being it is so much lighter, how would that effect the wire silo idea?? Thanks again guys. As I told u last year, I sure count on u guys for your ideas. I wrote our/your posts to me on planting corn and have it now. Im haveing sent 2 cultivator shanks that I will mount to be 4in to the side, and 4in deeper than the seed for the fert. I didnt do anything last year, as I had bad vihicle problems. I dont this year, and have the money to do things with. Thanks again

[rambler]

I appologise for my spelling, that other message of mine was terrible. Wife is snoozing, & I am typing in the dark on a laptop.... And I can't spell anyhow....

Cattle love dry cornstalks, no water need be added ever. I can put out a round bale of alfalfa, and a round bale of cornstalks. They will eat 1/2 the stalks before they go after the alfalfa!

The drier you put it up, the better. Treat it just like any type of hay. Dry & covered from the rain/snow.

You could just run a wire around the 8 acres & let them eat the standing stalks themselves, no manure to move, but I think you have other plans for the field to get things planted.....

The cattle will need some energy added, the cornstalks are a good fiber & low energy source. They eat up the leaves & husks, and will nibble on the smaller parts of the stalk. You can use the rest of the stalk for bedding when they have the good stuff eaten up.

Keep it dry.

--->Paul

[FarmboyBill]

Your right ramber. Here you can get 2 crops a year off of the same ground. I want to run around 5 acres of corn and 7 acres of oats on my ground. After boths out i want to plant haygrazer. If I get one cuting, thats hay I dont have to hunt and haul to get here, and if it gets a good foot regrowth, that makes great plowdown

[rambler]

Here in southern MN, we plant corn into ice cold dirt, doesn't come up for 2 weeks or more sometimes waiting for the dirt to warm up, and like this fall, combining in the snow & frozen ground to get the corn off the field. Sometimes seems we can't even get one crop per season, you are getting 3.

--->Paul

[FarmboyBill]

Although I think I could get 3 crops on the same ground here, I aint up to trying it yet. What I met to say is, Ive got 12 acres plowable. I want to put around 1/2 that in oats, and the other in corn, when both the oats and corn come off, I wanna put back in haygrazer. I think I could put in the corn first, then the oats, and then the haygrazer and get one cutting off of it, but, thats all dependant on nonexistant rains here in the late summer/fall/ If I was alot younger, and had the money to do things with as I seem to have now, id like to try it, and may yet before its over.