Safety First: Safety Tips for Corn Silage Harvest
Posted: August 2, 2019 | Written By: Troy Brown, Form-A-Feed Forage Specialist
Your safety and your employees’ safety should be top priority, even during busy seasons such as corn silage harvesting. Here are some tips you can take back to the farm with you during corn silage season:
- Minimize the number of people on-foot and around areas where silage wagons, trucks, and pack tractors will be passing.
- Have all employees and vendors wear high visibility vests in silage filling areas.
- Never allow children in or near the storage facility during the filling process
- Packing slopes on bunkers and pile should have a 4:1 run to rise ration never to exceed a 3:1.
- ROP’s – Roll Over Protection are critical for tractors on the forage pile
- Match the silage face height to the silage removal equipment reach. Never create a situation where overhangs can be developed on a silage face to avoid potential avalanches.
- When covering or placing tires on the silage, always face toward the wall. Never turn your back to the edge of a bunker silage wall.
- Never stand closer than three times the height of the face of the bunker or pile.
- Consider posting warning signs: “Danger! Silage May Collapse”, “Keep Out”, Etc.
Always discuss safety with all your employees. It is not about shrink loss, feed conversion, cost of gain, closeouts, or milk production. It is about sending all employees home to their families safe, every day.
Do you need safety vests for your operation?
Request free safety vests from Form-A-Feed!