Filling Silo

    About one month ago I helped the landlord fill silo. First we had to mow the fields, and let the hay dry anywhere from an hour too a full day.  He let me drive the tractor that was hooked to the mower which really excited me since this was only the second time in my life that he let me mow.  He would stand on the step with the door open to the cab of the tractor just in case I needed help, and gave me instructions and tips on how to do a good job mowing. It took us about five hours of mowing before we got done with what he had wanted to mow for the day, and then we drove back to the barn and unhooked the mower. He then went and hooked up the tractor to the blower* and shut it off.

He told the helpers that had showed up earlier, that they would drive the tractors hooked to the silage wagons,* and I would operate the tractor hooked to the blower, and he would drive the tractor hooked to the chopper* and silage wagon. With that he jumped into his tractor started it and drove down the road to one of his fields. While he was doing that the helpers both started their tractors and followed him to the field. While they were gone I ran and started the tractor hooked to the blower and sat there and waited until one of them came back. After ten minutes of waiting the first load showed up, the helper skillfully navigated the tractor and wagon beside the blower. As soon as he stopped I jumped out of the tractor and ran to lowered the silage conveyor and then ran back into my tractor and slowly engaged the power take off* and  revved up the engine. While I was doing that the helper went and started unloading the wagon into the blower. We repeated that process for about a week before the silo was full.







*The blower blows finely chopped hay called haylage up a pipe along side the silo to which will connect at the top of the silo thus wise filling the silo.

*A silage wagon is a wagon that carries haylage. The side of the wagon has a door called an unloader with a conveyer that you have to lower. The conveyer runs the width of the wagon. there is also a conveyer that runs the length of the wagon it pushes the haylage up to the unloader.

*The chopper is a vicious machine that can kill if a person is pulled in. It has a rake called a head that pulls in the hay and finely chops the hay up. It than blows it out a chute into the wagon behind it.

*A power take off, is a shaft that sticks out the back of a tractor. In the case up above it was connected to a shaft the turned a large fan in side the blower.