Silos Loom as Death Traps on American Farms

NY Times ^ | 10/28/12 | John Broder

[DemforBush]

STERLING, Mich. — Tommy Osier, 18, a popular but indifferent student, was still a year from graduating from high school, and that was no sure thing. Farm work paid him $7.40 an hour, taught him discipline and gave him new skills. He had begun talking about making a life in farming...

[gnarledmaw]

"Alfalfa is alfalfa, whether used for silage or hay."

True, and an apple is an apple, whether dried or canned.

I was speaking to spontaneous combustion and why sometimes its preferred that the alfalfa is dry and sometimes one might want it wet.

With hay the method of storage is dry, it must be entirely dry. If moisture is present then bacteria grow in the moisture and generate heat which causes the dry portion to combust.

With silage one is "canning" moist food using the power of fermentation. The weight of the pile in the silo expresses juices creating a relatively uniform moisture. Adding water reduces dry pockets which better ensures a uniform environment for the friendly microorganisms and thereby reduces potential for spoilage that would be created by the molds and fungus in the once dry but now damp pockets.

So now you know why the difference. One person already has preserved food and is trying to secure it, the other person has secured food and is trying to preserve it.

[Real Cynic No More]

Well, thank you very much for the biology lesson. I was more a chemistry type. :-)

[STD]

When you work inside a silo make sure to drag along a garden hose secured outside the silo at the level where you are working. As long as you have oxygen, you have life. Wheat is even more dangerous than corn, because grain is small and weighs more.

When I was scheduled to clean out the silos, I would go to our garden first and gather up as many water hoses as necessary. I'd carry then up to the bin and then drop them into the bin.

I worked with three other guys that called me all kinds of nasty names. After a man died in Bloomington inside a grain silo, I noticed they started carrying hoses to work too!

[Hot Tabasco]

the plant safety crews continued to grow, which required they start inventing problems to solve.

Not necessarily true, their jobs were to continue to monitor the work environment since many of the new "alleged" injuries were production related "repetitive movement" injuries.

And to further address your statement, what would be your solution to the yet increasing incidents of Workers Comp claims (mostly bogus) being filed against these companies? You now not only have a workers comp department that handles these claims but a cadre of attorneys whose sole job is to settle them.

To put this issue into perspective for you, back around 1979, my company laid off approx. 700 employees due to the sale of our wheel and brake division. Within a year, 200 of those laid off employees had filed workers comp claims against my company............

[PeterPrinciple]

People die. It’s always a tragedy, and it’s always something that should be avoided. But it happens. We are trying to live in a world where no one gets sick, no one dies, and no sad events ever occur.

---

When God was a part of our society, we could blame Him. Now we can’t do that so some one else has to be responsible.

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

When I worked on a farm, we did all we could do to get alfalfa dry before we stored it...

You are correct, when putting up dry hay it should be as dry as you can manage. Silage, however, is fermented, high-moisture (up to about 14% moisture) fodder that can be fed to cud-chewing animals such as cattle and sheep. It is fermented and stored in a process called ensiling, and is usually made from grass crops, including maize, sorghum or other cereals, using the entire green plant, not just the grain. The process generates various gasses which either smother by excluding oxygen or cause lung damage by toxicity. Silos need to be ventilated before entering.

Regards,
GtG

[jayrunner]

You are correct about the difference between silage and ensilage, which my dad stored in trench silos. He would bulldoze a large wide trench and deposit the green cut foliage from milo and cane (sorghum) and corn into it. My job was to drive a small Ford tractor over the ensilage to pack it. As it cured or fermented, it changed from green to brown. It was a warm place to climb into during the winter and was a good feed for cattle since it combined roughage with grain. There were always flocks of pheasants and quail conveys around the silos. I think my dad had a total of four trench silo and two uprights, which he didn’t use much.

He used the local coop’s facilities to store grain, the coop had huge silos, had exhaust fans and heaters to keep the grain dry. They are also very dangerous, two years ago a country grade school friend of mine was killed along with two other workers when a coop’s silo exploded.

Yes, farming is dangerous, but so is life. I drove a tractor and an old stick shift Ford truck as soon as I could reach the pedals. I learned more about animals, weather, people, work habits, and myself by living and working on a farm, than I have ever from books or college. I have a MBA and am a CPA.

I trust and respect farmers much more than politicans or most attorneys.

Enough from me.