Rolling back silage pit sheets

[Grassman247]

No health and safety problems with this solution

 

[Scholsey]

No health and safety problems with this solution

Just a affording it problem.

 

[Grassman247]

Just a affording it problem.

£60k for one of my pits, would take me 10 years to get that money back and then rats and birds chewing the sheet is what worries me

 

[buffalo_soldier]

We have a cut face with tire rings covering it the whole way back and the wind has lifted the sheet at the face. Some people here have pit mats with the holes in them and have to tie them together or weight them with concrete blocks as they will blow off!!

To be fair, if anyone is allowed the weather pass. It's probably you.

 

[Shep]

Bales! Stack and remove with tele handler from the comfort of the cab. Last bale put up and you are finished, no rolling, lugging sheets and tyres or begging for help to do what now sounds like a very hazardous job.
If someone falls and is badly hurt or worse killed, a million pound claim and jail will make bales seem cheap.
Not something I would risk nowadays, in the future I can see pits being banned.

 

[ollie989898]

You do not need to fall very far to damage your spine to the extent you might never walk again. That said, throwing a few tyres off the front of the pit and cutting the black sheet into pieces so you can pile it up and burn would be safe in my book? Use man basket on the telehandler if you like though?

 

[Matt77]

We use bales too, but we’re undercover too so the bales are well looked after, use plastic top and side sheet but cut it, I’ve done my time of rolling sheets and then finding rats or something have made a mess of them.

 

[stablegirl]

Had a lad in his 20's local to here killed by a round bale just last week.

 

[Mc115reed]

If farmers weren’t so bloody ambitious about how much they want too put in there pits then the job wouldn’t be half as dangerous...

 

[multi power]

You cover dung heaps? What are the benefits?

Prevents the nutrients being leached away

 

[multi power]

I've seen videos of the Americans taking the tyres off and they have a harness and a rope going across the top of the pit

 

[Wishful Thinker]

Send the wife up now. I’ve a bad foot and awful balance. Hate cutting the cover but let her. It’s £60 not work the risk

 

[bobk]

Pit silage is a god awful pita , anyone rolling up a plastic needs therapy .

 

[Scholsey]

Had a lad in his 20's local to here killed by a round bale just last week.

Presumably it fell on him from off a loader? Terribly sad situation for everyone.

 

[betweenthelines]

So if taking the sheet & tyres off is risky, isn't it also a risk putting them on?

Perhaps the older generation who covered silage with a layer of lime, were ahead of the times?

 

[Thick Farmer]

I just push the sheet back with the bucket (yes, I feed with a bucket). Have been known to go all the way through a clamp like this and then separate the tyres and waste sheet just before first cut...

 

[Mc115reed]

So if taking the sheet & tyres off is risky, isn't it also a risk putting them on?

Perhaps the older generation who covered silage with a layer of lime, were ahead of the times?

Not really because you have a ramp when your filling it’s not a shear 20ft straight drop too the concrete

 

[Chips]

Bales! Stack and remove with tele handler from the comfort of the cab. Last bale put up and you are finished, no rolling, lugging sheets and tyres or begging for help to do what now sounds like a very hazardous job.
If someone falls and is badly hurt or worse killed, a million pound claim and jail will make bales seem cheap.
Not something I would risk nowadays, in the future I can see pits being banned.

I've done exactly that , don't miss going up on the pit in the dark and driving rain when the wind has blown the green sheets down over the face yet .

 

[jondear]

You cover dung heaps? What are the benefits?

Well not loosing nutrients for a start .Since tipping some up outside back in early November we've had a ft of rain and not really in a high rainfall area .
When it's gets spread after first cut it will be black and odourless because from last winter.

 

[Sid]

I've done exactly that , don't miss going up on the pit in the dark and driving rain when the wind has blown the green sheets down over the face yet .

Just a word of warning, I was unwrapping a chopped bale last week and it split in half. The half that fell down nearly trapped my leg.
Being a tad more careful now.

On the clamp side of things, speed of filling and consolidation is the main factor affecting clamp stability. We all know how quick these clamps are filled now!