Silos help Simcoe farmers meet competition By PAT GUERGIS Examiner Staff Reporter With or without silo preserving food for winter cattle feeding is the main occupation of Simcoe County farmers at this time of year Storage methods available to farmers vary from horizon tal silos to tall airsealed silos to no silo at all Each in dividual chooses the one best fitted to his needs and his pocketbook silos main purpose is to store high moisture feed says Chris Goody an agricultural representative with the Elmvale office of the ministry of agriculture and food Most silos are designed to eliminate as much oxygen as possible in order to keep bacteria down protein content up and moisture in In horizontal silo feed is compacted by driving front end loader over top of it as it is put into the silo area These silos are the cheapest to construct but require more atten tion during the winter Paul Bertaram Elmvale has been using this type for four years and says he likes it fine The cost of construction and operation are the main features like The horizontal silo is cheaper to erect and there are no operating costs such as an unloader and feeder ATTACHED TO BARN My silo is attached to the barn and it has feeding rack The cattle eat from the silage as they wish move the rack back as the feed is eaten andahalt foot high cement walls and sloped floor The contents corn silage the whole corn plant cho ped in harvester is left uncovered so that the weather orms seal With the horizontal silo more feed supplement is used because more protein content is lost in storage than with an upright silo especially the airsealed type Poured concrete silos poured in formed stages from the ground up and sealed wit an epoxytype material on the in side to prevent air leakage is another type used in Simcoe County Ron Coutts at RR Midhurst has two concrete opentop silos These were constructed from tongue and roove con crete staves twoandahalf by one foot wide bui to the re quired height Steel bands at various intervals around the outside give the structure added su port steel glasslined Harvestore si is the type Ken OBrien of RR Midhurst felt was best suited for his feed re quirements Whatever the style or size Simcoe County farmers are striving to give their cattle good winter feeding with high protein and energy content using the most economical method suited to their needs These milk beef and hog producers are struggling in world market where being competitive is what counts An economical efficient met 0d of winter feeding in an often harsh winter climate is more important today than ever With competition coming from the south where year round grazing is way of life and huge silos and barns are not needed wellmanaged silo in winter can be Canadian The Bertram silo is 80 feet long and 30 feet wide with nine farmer best friend No silos for western cattle finished by Beattie Brothers Were not enthusiastic about working with all the machinery necessary to handle silos and corn says Irvine Beattie of Beattie Brothers Farms near Stayner We have no silos at all on the farms we have We decided to go into green feeding All our land is in hay and pasture In normal year we bale around 50000 bales of hay but that will be down this year due to the dry weather earlier this spring We usually buy our straw 30 to 40000 bales to be used for bedding We acquired the mill in Stayner so we buy our grain and have it milled there and brought to the farms by tmck Beattie said his cattle are usually fed barley and corn with some oats Whatever is the best buy is what we use in various propor tions prefer mixture if its practical but price determines that The cattle are fed feed supplement as well Building silos and outfitting them with the equipment need ed to operate them would be major expense which Beattie does not feel is worthwhile Our busiest time of year is when we ship cattle in the fall and that would be the time we would have to put corn in the silos if we had them DONT FINISH AS FAST He said farmers with silos may be able to grow cattle bit VR wth Ron Coutts RRI Midhurst runs his silo loader by attaching it to his tractor hopped corn from the fields is fed into the opening of the loaderjust behind Coutts As the tractor engine turns it rotates shaft which causes several paddlelike arms to turn very quickly throw ing the silage up the 10 inch pipe and into the top of the 60foot structure Examiner Photo Brenda Hunter of Thornton correctly identified our last Know Your County picture as the Knock Community Centre formerly Knock School 88 15 in lnnlsflL If you think you know the answer to this weeks puzzler send it along with your name and address to Know Your County The Ex aminer Box 370 Barrie Ont L4M 4T0 Winner of Know Your County receives Sunday roast from Brennans Meat Market Barrie cheaper but they dont finish as fast We had thought that when our sons got goin they would want to go to si OS but they dont seem to want to Each of the brothers has one son who assists with the farm ing operation Haying is our big job That is done in June and July and stored in ei barns We dont have muc plowing to do because we dont break up the sod The fields get lots of manure and some fertilizer Beattie says they do have some extra help on the farms and students are hired in the summer as well The cattc are fed by truck usin an auger from the mill Fee ers which hold eight tons of feed at time are filled several times each week depending on the number of cattle the farms have The beef cattle are kept in feedlot but not necessarily under roof Beattie says there is some shelter but his cattle come mainly from the west and they arequite hardy BEEF CATTLE NLY Only beef cattle are kept mainly Charolais cross breeds as well as lierefords some HolsteinHeref0rd crossed some HerefordAngus cross breeds and few shorthorns The winter poses problems when you have no silo Beattie says but they are no worse and no more than with silo 77 only different The main thing is keeping the lanes open for the feed trucks The snow in the yards has to be kept down also so that the cattle cant get over the fence on snow buildup There are more health pro blems with sudden changes in temperatures The cattle can stand just about any weather as long as they have time to adjust to it but these are problems any beef producer has The Beattie Brothers have been farming all their lives They bought out their fathers farm in 1947 and started to buy western cattle in 1952 Silo gas can kill Silo gases were responsible for the deaths of three men from Leeds County in Eastern Ontario who died recently in 20by70foot tower silo The gases are formed in newlyfilled silos when the nitrates in the lant material break down to orm nitnc ox ide This gas then combines with oxy en just above the silage su ace to form nitrogen dioxide gas which is reddish brown and nitrogen tetroxide which is yellow All three gases are poisonous to humans and livestock The ases are heavier than air an tend to settle in the lowest area of silo They can also spill down the chute and ison animals or people at the se The greatest danger period for silo gases is during the first three days after filling has been completed or has been halted by weather Care should then be taken for the next two weeks and the re per signs posted asaremin er The best advice says Robert Humphries associate agri cultural representative for the North Simcoe office of the ministry of agriculture and food is to stay away from full silo until fermentation has ceased if you have to enter par tially filled silo min the blower for 20 minutes and use portable breathing equipment Charles Hickling RRZ Barrie uses both upright and the horizontal silos This week he was attempting to get as much corn silage as possible into the horizon tal silo in the foreground We do as much as we can each day to try and beat the wet weather he said Once the front end loaders seen here compacting the silage have completed their job the contents will be covered with plastic which is held down by the tires in the foreground Examiner Photo Uniform product every day advantage of silo to Springs Ray Sprin has sealed con crete si ich empties from the bottom Spring and his son John operate dairy farm on Highway 92 halfway between Elmvale and Wasaga Beach The Spring silo was built in 1974 at cost of $33000 It is 84 feet high and 24 feet wide The point of putting this type of silo up is to beat the weather We can feed consis tent uniform product at the same temperature every day There is no frost whatsoever in this silo in the winter The silage comes out at constant temperature of about 100 degrees just about the heat of your hand each day Spring says Last year the silage in Spr ings silo contained 203 per cent protein LESS ADDED We still add some protein to the cattle feed but its lot less than we used to With all this protein in the silage we really dont have to We re getting great results We dont have to feed the young cattle grain They get no con centrate and no grain from the time they are born until they freshen with their first call Spring says he has been growing and feeding alfalfa for about five years and finds it the cheapest crop to grow as well as the one which is best for the land He doesnt have the expense of replanting each spring as the alfalfa reseeds itself All we have to do is fertilize the fields This silo also gives us the chance to beat the alfalfa weavil which usually strikes about the middle or end of June if we see it creeping into our fields we cut the hay and get it in the silo We get two or three cuttings summer but we have found that leaving the last cut ting over the winter makes for better spring crop The first cutting is taken in the first week of June Spring says his cattle were fed in con finement this year mainly because the weather seems so unpredictable With extended periods of dry or wet weather we know our cattle will get consistent feeding this way FIRST FOR HAY If the weather is good the Springs bale the first cutting for hay and put the second in the silo If the weather is catchy we put the first cutting in and bale the second Spring figures his silo is very rmanent structure and shwlgelast for good many years He says the inside was painted with an epoxy mixture okeepitairtight It was uelike plastic which keeps acid in the silage from affecting the ce ment There are no leaks no cracks and no si of deteriora tion at all We ve made no repairs to it so far and weve haditforthreeyeais Spring says he doesnt think Ray Spring 8R2 Elmvale has decided not to wait for the weather to dry his corn Instead these grain dryers will do the job for him The largest one holds 5000 bushels while the two smaller ones hold 3300 bushels each 122 horse power motor is used to blow heated air under an elevated floor as an arm sweeps the corn into the centre and takes it up an auger as it dries to conveyor which moves it to storage place Examiner Photo his silo makes the feed any bet ter than any other kind but says it is lot easier to handle An opening inside the barn at the bottom of the 500 ton silo lets the feed drop into an elec tric wagon called Manger Ranger The feed is pulled out with flails pole up the centre has arms with chains attached which turn around work the feed to the wall and down the sides It works much like Si ingshot WORK SAVER Once it is in the cart the driver who stands on the back takes it to the cattle and discharges it into the manger its not timesaver but it is definitely work saver The alfalfa haylage is put in to the silo at moisture content of 45 mm per cent Sometimes there is so much rain you cant get enou days to get the feed in This si helps us solve that problem as does the fact that we grow alfalfa which can be put in from three cuttings throughout the sum mer You can usually guess the weather at least one day ahead The Springs kee teins on the fam an 50 The silo was constructed in two weeks time with red ce ment As each section dried another was poured on top until the desired height was reached Once the structure was seal ed feed could be placed inside with no fear of sponlage 150 Hols milk about Spring says he decided on poured cement silo over steel one because of the cost wanted sealed silo and this one does the same as steel one with less cost Besides that know its permanent structure 130 km with auto mil tutflmu mans Ltwiudn as tlmllutu tau in At AN HM no At 19 Ray Spring prepares to start the silo unloader so it will fill the electric cart he is standing on Once the switch is turned on the alfalfa haylage within the 84 foot high silo will be pulled out and dmpped The cart will be moved to the cattle mangers carrying the feed Spring says the sealed concrete silo helps to retain the high protein value of the alfalfa enough so that he has cut back considerably on the amount of purchased protein supplement Ex aminer Photo