Haylage towers

[Hawkes]

I worked on a farm in Devon as a student in the 70's that had a top unloader silage tower made of steel rings. The unloader mechanism had to be assembled on top of the grass once it was full which meant pulling it all up with a wire rope up over a swivelling gantry attached to a tractor at the bottom. You had to stand on a little platform bolted to the side and swing the arm round, signal the tractor driver and lower the bits through a hatch in the domed top. The main drive motor there was huge as it was single phase and when it came up to the top the metal panel used to ping in and tilt the platform until you swung it back in and it pinged back again ....!! Very exciting 60 ft or whatever up in the air.
We blew the grass up with a Ford 5000 going absolutely flat out for days.

 

[Ormond]

Wonder if any one has any pictures current or old. Heard of a story local years ago, top unloader broke down, winched up out the way and a few of them inside the tower with forks to get the silage out while they were waiting for parts.