Snow on Silage Pit

yessam

Just wondering how everyone is coping with snow and ice on the silage pit. I had to roll back cover this morning with great difficulty. Firstly the plastic was stuck to the slab at the sides with frost, then to get up on the pit and move tyres was like a skating rink with ice and snow and to roll back the cover was almost impossible. I actually did'nt get the cover back as far as I would normally do so.
Am I alone on this one or is there some simple idea that I am missing.

milkprofit

Just push it back with bucket of loader(like any lazy man )

Jack C

Yeah I know freezing hands, probably slip and break your neck but there's always a bright side, at least because the stinking water that gathers in the tyres is frozen it does'nt splash up and hit you in the face.

MfMan

Had that problem too. First cover is the worst because that's the one that holds most of the snow, heavy as hell to roll back. Bring a yard brush or shovel up with you to clear off the worst of the snow if you can. Maybe an idea to put tractor tyres on the highest part of the pit so that there's less lifting as compared to smaller car tyres. Bucket of sand or salt may help. The barriers on my side walls are a great benefit from the point of view of safety and balance.

Sam Kade

I saw on tv a few years ago where a farmer covered his silage pit with one sheet of plastic and a good cover of dung on top of it. The dung weighs down the plastic and there is no need to put on a second sheet as the dung stops air getting through. When it came to feeding time he used a shear grab. He was able to take the dung and plastic with the silage, he then opened the grab on the ground scraped the dung off onto dung heap and put the plastic into a container. There was no need to climb up on the pit and no mess with tyres and plastic all over the place. It might be awkward putting the dung on when covering the pit but it saves a lot of hassle when feeding. You need a shear grab though.

Muckit

Sam Kade wrote: »

I saw on tv a few years ago where a farmer covered his silage pit with one sheet of plastic and a good cover of dung on top of it. The dung weighs down the plastic and there is no need to put on a second sheet as the dung stops air getting through. When it came to feeding time he used a shear grab. He was able to take the dung and plastic with the silage, he then opened the grab on the ground scraped the dung off onto dung heap and put the plastic into a container. There was no need to climb up on the pit and no mess with tyres and plastic all over the place. It might be awkward putting the dung on when covering the pit but it saves a lot of hassle when feeding. You need a shear grab though.

I remember seeing that tv clip too Sam. Your right, getting up to clear back tyres is deadly, but we still manage it (with care!) We used to use truck tyres on top, but got out of this as we found no advantage to them. We find car tyres butted side by side is more than sufficient. Rolling up truck tyres only left foot marks and stretched polythene.

The problem with using dung are the crows routing in it for worms and then you've dung both sides of the polythene:rolleyes: We used it back when we made double chop pits were out the field.

We usually put on a new cover then two old ones. The top two covers are rolled seperately to the one nearest the silage. They can then be cut with a stanley knife (if needs be when they get heavy) and it's easy roll back the bottom cover separately (for saving for following year)

The one good saving grace about pit silage is that it'I keep longer in this weather.

Muckit

I'd love to get those 'zill bags' too. Anyone here use them?

We double bag sand in 50kg manure bags for sealing the edges, but the frost/ice always plays havoc eventually bursting them:rolleyes:

8560

simple to cover a pit of silage with dung. we drive around the heap with a rotospreader, lovely even job and it sticks well to the sides. usually drag it off with the loader bucket and dump in pile

Jack C

Somebody correct me but I thought dung wasn't allowed anymore on pits.

The_Conductor

As far as I am aware, its not allowed under the nitrates directive (I can't find the directive handy- if someone else is able to (and has the time to) highlight the relevant section, I'd be grateful).

Shane

farmer1

I’m not 100% sure on the exact legislation involving silage pits but as far as I know FYM is now supposed to be stored under a roof.

vincenzolorenzo

Yep my understanding was that dung was outlawed on pits nowadays? We used to always have 2 sheets of plastic, sealed at the edges with homemade sand bags (50kg manure bags) and then dung on top. Got tyres in, i would say 15 years ago. We always had the same problem with the bags too. The plastic would go brittle and they had to be handled carefully at the end of the year or they would burst

Dupont

we use 6" blocks along the edge. good and heay so they sink with the pit and make a tight seal and then stack them on the wall or a pallet when stripping it and there there for the next year.use tyres for the rest and butt them tight

red menace

Back in the day, whe we used to civer the pit with dung , we used to spread grass seed on top of the dun,
Made it a doddle to strip the pit ,one you got it started it peeled off like a carpet

dar31

red menace wrote: »

Back in the day, whe we used to civer the pit with dung , we used to spread grass seed on top of the dun,
Made it a doddle to strip the pit ,one you got it started it peeled off like a carpet

good idea with the grass seed.
as far as i know you can still use dung to cover silage pits, however the catch is that all run off water from the plastic has to be collected in a tank and stored over the close period as it contaminated by fym and it cant be classified as dirty water either.

most definetly push back with loader, when it gets to much, pull it all forward with loader on to ground, and gather it all up from the saftey of the ground.
also the water will gather behind cover, and come out at the lowest point, just leave this in such a way as the water isnt flowing onto silage.