With all this work we are doing on our new exhibit I thought I would share a couple things that I learned about silos. First, the word comes from the Latin word silus meaning cellar. Now this is interesting because the first silos were actually holes in the ground used to store grain. Even the Native Americans use "corn cellars". When the idea of ensilage preservation was beginning they stored it in the ground in what they were calling trench silos. The first one being documented in Germany in 1861. The story goes that Mr. Reihlen "found that much of his corn crop had been damaged by frost. Wishing to preserve it, he dug a trench in which he stored his maize; when he opened it a few months later he found the corn well preserved and discovered this cattle would eat it readily." In 1873 Fred Hatch of McHenry County, Illinois built the first upright silo. From there the silo boom grew. Early wooden silos gave way to brick and later glazed tile. These were soon dwarfed by the monster concrete and steel silos we commonly think of standing close by the old farm barn. Then something really strange happened. With all of man's desire to have the newest technology, silos went back to where it all started, the ground. Today most of the corn silage in the U.S. is actually stored on the ground or in flat concrete walled "bunker silos". After all that, it ends up that the first design was not only the best, but also the cheapest. That is irony!
The pictures are from the bunker silo up at Golden Oaks Farm. Thanks guys.
