Horizontal Silo Feedout Safety Protocols

By James Carrabba, Agricultural Safety Specialist

New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health-NYCAMH

Removal of feed from a bunker silo or a drive over silage pile is a daily task on the farm that has a lot of potential for serious injuries. The dangers include falls, engulfments, runovers and entanglements, which can result in serious injuries or death. There have been cases where feeders have fallen from the leading edge of a silage face and dropped 15 to 20 feet to the concrete pad below. Another very serious safety hazard is silage face collapse which can happen without warning. Even the most meticulously maintained silage faces can collapse suddenly. Unfortunately, for producers, there are no universal industry standards that can be referred to for horizontal silo feedout safety. The following list summarizes key safety guidelines that could be followed to ensure safety in a silage feedout program.

Initial Filling and Packing

• To prevent overfilling, horizontal silos need to be adequately sized for the amount of silage to be stored.
• If the silo has walls, inspect the integrity and condition of the walls prior to filling.
• Develop written safety protocols for horizontal silo feedout safety and train workers on the protocols periodically. Document all training sessions with a sign-in roster.
• Silage should be packed in a progressive wedge shape. Packing tractors should aim for spreading and packing silage in 4-6 inch layers to achieve proper packing pressures. Silage that is properly packed in this manner may be less prone to face collapses during feedout.
• To prevent overhang conditions, silage should never be piled higher than the reach of the unloading equipment.
• If new silage has been added to existing old silage in a horizontal silo, mark that transition point. The new silage will not be interlocked with the old silage and large sections can collapse unexpectedly when feeding out.
• Do not pile new silage on top of existing silage that has a plastic covering in place; although this may seem in the best interest in forage quality, it can result in an increased hazard of face collapse during feedout. Extra caution is warranted with any activity in these areas. 
• Nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide are generated after initial filling. Highest amounts of these gasses occur in the first 2-3 days after filling, but can be present for up to three weeks afterwards. In most cases, these gasses will be contained underneath the covering. Use caution around silo during this period, particularly if removing plastic to add additional forage to freshly piled silage.

Feedout Safety Protocols

• Only authorized personnel should be in the silo area. Keep visitors and children away and post appropriate warning signage such as "Authorized Personnel Only" and "Danger, Keep Out, Silage Can Avalanche". Post bilingual signs if necessary. Consider fencing off the horizontal silo area.
• Workers should wear high visibility clothing or vests.
• Use the "buddy system" and have a second worker present whenever working around silage. Workers should maintain communication and visibility with each other while working in or near silos.
• Never walk up to the face of the silage. Stay back a distance that is three times the height of the face. Document the face height so that workers can more accurately gauge this distance. You could mark the safe distance from the silage face with safety cones.
• Use a loader bucket to collect silage for samples. Collect the sample from loader bucket when it is a safe distance from the silage face.

Preventing Falls, Face Collapse and Entanglements

• When working on top of the silage, stay back from the leading edge at least 8-10 feet. Wear footwear with non-slip tread. Some guidelines have suggested staying back from the edge as far as the face is tall. Use long handled tools to pull back the tires and plastic from the leading edge. If possible, throw tires and plastic off the sides of the silo.
• Remove tires, sidewalls, gravel bags and plastic or coverings in the daylight. If this must be done at night, there should be adequate lighting provided.
• Minimize spoilage and manage it safely. Make every effort to minimize it through best management practices for maintaining forage quality (inoculants, high density, oxygen limiting plastic, plastic along walls, etc.). If spoilage has to be removed, use equipment operating from the ground level to do so rather than manually removing it by hand.
• Shave down the silage face when removing silage. Keep the silage face as smooth as possible. The silage face could be angled back slightly towards the pile to further reduce overhang situations. To prevent potential overhang situations, don't engage a loader bucket at the bottom of the silage face.
• Do not drive parallel and in close proximity to the silage face with loaders or other heavy equipment.
• Never park vehicles or equipment close to the silage face.
• Always shut off equipment, such as a silage defacer, prior to servicing or adjusting.

Evaluate your current silage feedout procedures. Are you following the safety protocols listed in this article or are there areas where you can make improvements to keep everyone safer? Take the time throughout the year to regularly train family members and employees on these safety protocols so that you can prevent silage feedout mishaps and injuries.

Information in this article was retrieved from the Silage Safety Foundation, https://silagesafety.org/ Also, thanks to Karl Czymmek and Joe Lawrence of Cornell PRO-DAIRY who reviewed and shared information used in this article.

For more information on this topic, and for safety resources such as personal protective equipment, retrofit PTO shields and SMV emblems for sale, visit our website at: www.nycamh.com, or call (800) 343-7527. NYCAMH, a program of Bassett Healthcare, funded in part by the New York State Departments of Labor and Health, is enhancing agricultural and rural health by preventing and treating occupational injury and illness.