Blower Speeds Silage Making

Blower speeds silage making CROP STORAGE Silos (50) 16-2-35 Latest new development in high speed silage making with minimum labor and equipment is a first-of-its-kind blower-conveyor combination unit introduced by Anco Mfg., Ashland, Wis. Loads of freshly-chopped silage are dumped onto the self tending conveyer which feeds material into the attached blower. Until now, silo-filling conveyors and blowers have been separate units. Anco Mfg. has combined them into one machine. "Our new silo filler meets the need for filling upright silos fast and easy when hauling silage with trucks or rear unloading wagons," explains Myron Anderson, inventor-manufacturer. "It utilizes the power in bigger tractors, makes it easy to blend feedstuffs, and lets you fill upright, bunker or trench silos with the same hauling equipment. "One man working alone can move the new Anco combination rig to a nearby silo in a matter of minutes. Just drive up to the silo, lower the conveyor platform, hook up the silo pipe and you're ready to go. With conventional separate conveyor and blower equipment, getting it all moved, aligned and hooked up can take an hour or more," Anderson points out. The high capacity Anco-designed and built blower is 48 in. in dia., operates at 1,000 rpm and accommodates 9 or 11 in. dia. filler pipe. "It'll fill the tallest of the tall uprights with haylage or silage," says Anderson. The conveyor is 12 ft. long and 11 ft. wide at its mouth. Platform and beater speeds are independently controlled via tractor hydraulics. For transport, the sides fold in and the platform is raised hydraulically. The new-style conveyor is equipped with an up-front side opening, allowing two different silages to be blended and loaded into the silo simultaneously. For example, alfalfa silage transported in a side-unloading forage wagon can be fed into the side opening at the same time the conveyor's chain apron is moving corn silage into the blower's input auger. Anderson says the new Anco conveyor-blower can be adapted to existing silage handling systems, or to the "push off" For-age Transfer Wagon which Anco introduced nine years ago (featured ire FARM SHOW's Vol.6,No. 5, 1983 issue). Wagon is equipped with a hydraulic push-off ram that unloads the entire load in seconds. When chopping silage, a waiting truck backs up to the chopper wagon. In less than a minute, the entire load is pushed hydraulically out of the 7 by 8 by 16 ft. wagon and into the truck box. During chopping, the ram can be activated to pack the load, making it possible to load on up to twice as much material. Anco has also developed a companion "push off' box which mounts onatruck and is used in conjunction with the push-off chopper wagon. Here's how the 2-man silage making system works: One man runs the forage chopper and the other trucks loads from field to silo. When the chopper wagon is full, the load is pushed off, like a giant loaf of bread, into the truck, which is also equipped with a push-off box. The chopper wagon bed can be raised or lowered hydraulically to line up with-the truck bed for making the transfer. Wagon and truck lock in place automatically for transferring the load, which takes less than a minute. The driver goes home with the load, pushing it off onto the apron of the new self-tending conveyor-blower. Anderson notes that the special truck box with the "push off" feature is especially handy for piling silage in a bunker or trench since you can unload without having to raise the truck box. "It isn't imperative, however, that the truck box have the push-off feature. Your regular truck box will work fine in receiving loads from our push-off chopper wagon." For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Anco Mfg., Rt. 4, Box 74, Ashland, Wis. 54806 (ph 715 682-2273).

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