Silos are fine when they are new and the farmer is young. Father Time gets us all. Retired dairy farmer at age 62.

If you watch 10th generation dairy farmer they just put up 3 new silos. They are changing to a auto feed system. About half done with it now. Your doing the right thing with the old silos.

Great you are keeping your mom's memory alive. Good luck on your future feeding endivers. STAY SAFE

You are doing the right thing. You have been trying to keep those silos going and they are just a money pit (new roofs) waiting to kill you. When you know better you do better. You are not just thinking of yourself but all those who are coming after you.

U could unload your mixer into the conveyor that you use to unload the bagged corn silage. That way you can use your bunk conveyors yet.

SOUNDS LIKE THE RIGHT SAFE MOVE.❤

Get a roller packer for the pad to make it as hard as you can. Best unit for unloading bags is a grapple bucket, corn silage and small grain scoop out easy but haylage needs to be grabbed.

Hi Kip! I've got neighbors that had a silo go over and they stopped using the other remaining one . They went to bags and a mixer too. They've been on this new program for about 5 years.

Good move KIP, a neighbor had 1 fall seconds after kids got out, they were levelling and heard it creak and felt it move, ran down 50 ft, got out cell phones and recorded it falling i was told by my Dad. A very close call

Kip a tear in my eye for your Mom, Bless you sir as I lost my Mom many years back at 82 I am now 83 and still hanging in there.

from a longevity perspective getting rid of the silos is smart. the amount of money to get new ones is ridiculous . you'll adapt don't worry .

I admire your decision and standing up for the safety of everyone on your farm! In time every person working on your farm will grow to appreciate your leadership.

That’s a great way to remember your mother or someone special

Feeding tmr is one of the best moves you can make. Our cows went up 8 pounds per cow when we made the switch. Biggest thing is get a good nutritionist and be willing to make changes to the ration and try things.

Always love your videos Kip!😊

Awesome that you are going tmr. Let us know how much more milk you produce. I run a cloverdale mixer on beef cattle. It was a game changer

Very glad you’re getting away from the silos. Safety is most important.

Going to make life so much easier

Mixer wagon is definitely the way to go!

That's amazing installing that rubber to the hoof never seen that done before

Might I suggest a drive over pile for silage. Pour a pad, as I type you’re talking about that exact thing. We’ve had uprights, bags, balage, and bunks. Bunks are so nice. Fast filling, great feed, no ladders or unloaders and all that goes along with that.

I remember in a video a while back when you said you wanted to get rid of your silos now I totally understand why I agree with you. 100% rather be safe than sorry.

AMEN BROTHER 🙏🙏 TMR will raise your production also no guessing on what your feeding to each cow !!!! Nice way to remember your mother also. Thanks to everyone!!

This was one of your best videos kip it’s just an awesome video. Thank you so much.

Excellent move. Make appointment with a nutritionist for help proper amount of mix. It took a lot to move forward

As someone who just put up a new silo last year I think you guys are doing the right thing our plan is to never put more than 3 silos up and only let them get to 40 years before we tear them down

On a silage pad, i would check with the younger generation that is coming up on the concrete crews. What i mean is when we poured my pad less than 2 years ago, the owner was under 30 years old and the only one that was brought up using a lazer screed. Our pad is 80 wide and 125 feet long and was done all in one pour. Then it is also sloped south 1% and sloped west 1%, just to the rain or juices will run off easier. We do not have any sidewalls or atleast not yet. Biggest reason is the blade on the dozer tractor is wider than the tires, so we would not be able to pack the sides until the product was above the walls. But an option is to either use the bucket on the loader or happen to purchase a blade attachment for the loader. The big dairies around here, I mean over 5,000 cows milking dont use walls on their bunkers. They will on their commodity sheds

Good job guys

Good for you, Kip I don’t blame you at all. That’s a smart thing to do.

Great decision and move forward. I know from our farm it is very difficult to make those hard decisions but once done it is major relief and calming. Thanks for taking the time to make these videos.

Great video. Great way to honor your mom. Thank you

Great speech

I think going away from the silos is a good decision Kip. It’s safer. When we used to milk in tiestalls we would feed out of silos but when we moved away from silos and went to bunks and piling it worked great. Makes feeding TMR easier and sometimes more efficient. We run a 7830 just like your guys except ours has a blade on the front and works great. We would run all dump trucks with a dump box behind the chopper for headlands. Hope the ag bags work well for you guys this year.

We have 2 upright silos. They have not been used in 10 years. We are a small dairy 40 to 50 cows and do balage with a couple of ag bags of haylage for topping off the mixer pounds wise. Those new holland discbines are light compared to a deere

Very good discission on your part, staying on the ground as your age increases is also good forward thinking!

Thanks for the video. What a wonderful way to to honor the memory of your beloved mother

You guys are getting a great start to getting away from silo's, once you get a pad you'll be much happier, yeah you'll have some spoilage but it's way safer, check out a Sheep's-Footed roller a little packer once you get going, nice to see you guys improving the farm and getting safer for you and the next generation! Great work, love the videos, also Kuhn reel Augie is a very good low maintenance mixer wagon highly recommend!

My dad always wished we could grow alfalfa that nice

we switched from harvestores to bunks 20 yrs ago with a few mistakes they make great feed they are the future

Good move. I liked loading our feed cart with a JCB tellahander. I believe our buck is 2 1/2 yards.

No amount of money if worth Life! Agreed! I bet it was a heated conversation. 😬 All of the significant others are like thank you.

I don’t have to tell you, but cows love consistency. I never said a bad word about your feed system because you do the best with what you have, but a mixer will give the cows the perfect blend in every bite. You can’t say that with your current feed. Thus better health and more milk. The price tag hurts I’m sure. Let’s goooo!

Great decision. Family in or around dairy farming for 50 years. Progress and safety is the best direction to take. Your son will thank you down the road.

i think if you are going to go towards bunk silos, you may want start evaluating your crop mix to maximize your TMR feed value...adding fall barley or rye to chop for increased yield of fermentation

We tore down 2 silos a couple of years ago and switched over to a tmr mixer you won't regret it

We took down 2 big silo’s and are a cement bunkers with asphalt floors. I wore out 2 sets of 3 forge wagons. Nothing worse than wagons breaking with a load of feed on them. Filling bunks with trucks and loader goes fast. I am retired and my son and daughter in law run the farm now.

You won't miss the silos and you're going to love tmr

Bags are good when managed properly. I would recommend using a skid steer to unload the bags. You end up tearing up the bag with too big a bucket. You can get a lower profile mixer like a Meyer to make it easier to load with a skid steer. The farm that I work on, just switched two years ago from bags for their corn silage to a pile. They still put Haylage in their upright silos which are poured concrete. The pile has its advantages for sure, but if you’re thinking, it’s gonna save you in labor that’s where might be wrong. You invest a ridiculous amount of time and money into pushing and packing laying down plastic and slinging tires. There’s a lot of resources invested in that. Of course day-to-day feeding is faster but when you do have to cut plastic and sling tires again it’s more labor. All the storage methods have their advantages and disadvantages. Me personally I like tower silos for Haylage and corn silage on the pile is fine. Again bags have to be managed well, but they can give you some of the advantages of a pile without all the time and labor and fuel involved.

It’s sad. But you have to do what is best and safest for all involved. The argument you presented swayed my opinion and agree with you. 👍🏻

Silage in piles and doing TMR is the way to go! Your cows will thank you the move. 👍👍👍

Like you said, can't beat the feed.

Awesome way to memorialize your mother and give back to the community. Way to go

That scholorship is special

Your family needs you more then the cows , great call !

Dairy farmed for 22 years always used piling and trenches for the silage. Southern Kentucky location. My experience with upright was with neighbors, and their issues, made me glad we never built one.

SMART SMART SMART. always a better way . Stay safe

Well done to you and your family for setting up the scholarship in the memory of your mother, what a fabulous way to continue her legacy to you all and others. It's something to be proud of and an example to all too. Plus, sometimes the right decisions are the hardest and moving on from the silos is a positive step and has the potential to save money as well as keep everyone safe. Great video by the way too.

Yessss TMR will boost your milk so much u will never look back

Kip your dad and I are the same age. When I was a boy I remember my parents talking about a man who fell off an up rite silo. I'm small time compared to you. I bought a little mower conditioner. It's low hours. An inexperienced operator broke it. The parts to fix it come with it. When I hsd beef cattle I did not feed silage. I decided if I did , it would be a bunker or bag.

I think your right. Those stave cement silos are dangerous when they get old and start to deteriorate. And when it goes there will be no warning

Glad to hear you're going to stop using the older more rickety silos. Stay safe out there Kip.

You made the right decision.

kip, we changed to ag bags 2 years ago. love it. We are 250 cow dairy in pa and it is just so easy to feed . Had six silos . Any questions i'd be glad to help answer them.

I got gassed in a silo 30 years ago. Wasn't fun, obviously I survived. Silo unloaders are always in need of repairs, but you can always find, rent, or maybe borrow a loader tractor (or something) to feed with. I switched to bags when I noticed a bulge in a stave silo. If I had stayed in the Dairy biz, bunker silo would have been my next step.

Thanks for sharing

We fill out bunk with corn silage and put haylage and any extra corn in ag bags

I think it's a good idea to build the pad and feed out of the age bags

another great video! the right call!

Best thing to do about the old silos kip, switch the feeding system to a mixer wagon but try and keep the conveyors feeding, delivering food into the feed troughs. If you're getting hoof problems, especially digital dermatitis or hairy wart as you guys call it- foot bathing as the cows exist the parlour. Use copper sulphate, cus04, for dd, formalin for hardening feet, helping to avoid ulcers to an extent. It's a cost, but worth doing, believe me. I used to use copper x1 a wk and hardly had any dermatitis problems.

I like the silos from the nostalgia standpoint but I think you have made the correct decision as far as safety. We stopped using our concrete silo many many years ago for the same reasons. Concrete was deteriorating and everyone was tired of climbing into it for working on the unloader. The bags have been a safer choice for us in the meantime.

I think that it is so smart for you guys to go to bunkers eventually. You will be able to weigh the feed so you can better control what you are feeding. Thanks to the guys who built your current feeding system but that thing has been passed by and you are making the best decision for the future. Up and coming generations will thank you for this choice.

Great idea Kip

Glad to hear you're doing away with the silos . Had a neighbor up on a silo and it collapsed was buried for several hrs before found. Was busted up bad but survived was buried up to his shoulders. He's still has problems today.

Definitely doing the right thing gotta be safe

Another very interesting video Thank you

I think it is a great call and from feeding at two different dairies with TMRS you be very well satisfied in time. You do a great job on your videos . If you got questions please reach out . Safe harvesting

I think your headed in the right direction with a tmr mixer. Those hairy warts are hard to deal with. Gotta stay after them.

You do what u gotta do thanks for sharing

I'm so glad you're getting away from the silos.....I prayed every time you went in one....😮..crops looking beautiful!!!🙏❤️🇺🇲

I am not a Farmer but for your families and yourselfs GOOD MOVE SAFETY YOUR RIGHT USE YOUR HEAD. STAY ALIVE. YOUR FAMILIES LOVE YOU. WE don't care lol JOKING PEOPLE JOKING LOVE THE CHANNEL KIP

What a great ending to an excellent video. Looking at that one cow’s foot made my foot hurt! Great looking alfalfa!! Taking down most of the silos brings an end to an era of Sigler Farms. Like you said, can’t fight progress. Stay safe.

My grandpa was a cattle farmer up until he retired in the early to mid-80's. He has a couple large ground based silos with 15' high concrete walls like you're planning and they were built into a hill. So, you could dump on the "ground level" or from up top once you had it packed that high. He purchased a larger front loader to pack and fill the sileage wagons to feed all the cattle. It was a small operation, but it was fun to be able to help a little when I was 11-12 years old. Great memories on the farm. You are doing it right

Thank You

Very smart decision. God bless

kip, you did the right thing.

Yes I think you’re going in the right direction

Good decision Kip, I'll think it saves you a lot of money in the first place.. gives you a lot of work comfort. Your can offer your cows a better meal. And for sure its a lot safer.... wish you all the best

When I turned 60, I gave up getting on ladders. Same with Silo work. It's tough getting old. Kip, your common sense makes sense! Make a lot of money too.

You are on the right tract. It is to bad that the 10th generation farmer from southern PA didn't get the news. They just built 3 130' upright silos.

Im not sure how many cows you are feeding but my grandpa built a loading dock to load our mixer with a skid steer. We have a 2575 Jaylor mixer that is about 20 years old. It works great. But we also have bunker silos. Not sure if building a loading dock is something you thought about. Then maybe you could get by just fine with your skid steer. Just a thought. If want pictures for ideas just let me know.

Great decision on the silos, what a great way to carry on your mom's legacy. Awesome job on another great video.

Good idea for getting a TMR. The ag bags will be expensive if you plan on feeding out of them for a long period of time.

Scholarship - nicely done - God bless y'all

Once farms needed more than 1 or 2 short silos they became relics.

The quality of feed in those bags is 2nd to none.

Cows will do very well on tmr and much easier the supplement them with different things in the ration

Kip, The decision you made to stop using the silos was a good idea for the best. I know several people that have got killed in them silos. Best not to use them anymore than have to.

Kip great decision ❤! Gotta farm safe thanks for a lil reference to thy video abt the farmer in pa I forwarded you :)

Good call Kip! Being thrifty when you don't have to never pays off!

This is a nice idea and right decision