Storage Structures

Grain, Feed and Fodder

5/26/2023 Lectures Note by Er. DR Bagale 1

 Silo
• Is a farm structure used to store and protect the animal
fodder so that it is preserved in an ideal condition for the
farm animals.
• Fodder is cut and packed in the air tight silo to allow a
partial fermentation to occur. The sorted fodder is
known as silage.

5/26/2023 Lectures Note by Er. DR Bagale 2

 Types of Silo
• Silos may be classified as:
– Tower silos: having a cylindrical shape, made of
masonry, wood or metal
– Horizontal silos: Pit, bunker, trench or stack type

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 Permanent Tower Silos
• Built of brick, concrete, metal or tiles are durable and wind
resistant.
• Loading is difficult.
• Either a mechanical loader or a large capacity blower is
essential for elevating the cut fodder to the tower.
• Walls should be smooth, circular and perfect in plumb to
provide structural strength and to permit free settling and
packing of silage without air pockets.
• Walls must be strong enough to avoid cracking due to lateral
pressure. To avoid such failures, heavy reinforcement has to
be carried out.
• Unless the water table is very close to the ground level, the
upright tower silos offer no special advantage over the other
types.
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 Horizontal Silos
• Are used on most dairy farms as temporary and permanent
storage structures for silage (both surface and below ground)
• Above-ground stack or below-ground unlined trench has
advantage of being readily and cheaply made at any time.
• Can be easily filled and unloaded even without special
equipment.
• Spoilage of silage range between 20 to 30%.

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 Pit Silos
• Is a circular deep well which is lined all along the
side, and sealed from the bottom so that water may
not rise into it.
• Are made in areas where the soil is deep and the
water table is very low.
• Can be made of bricks, stones or concrete
• Is desirable to have a simple roof over the silo to
protect the silage from sun and rains.

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 Feeding, size and capacity of pit silo
• Generally a cow is fed about 3 kg of silage per 100 kg of her
body weight per day.
• Correct diameter of the silo depends on the quantity of
silage to be fed daily.
• To prevent spoilage, silage should be removed at the rate of
10 cm day.
• It is economical to build only one silo for herd, but for large
herds, more than one silo should be built.
• The diameter of a silo is usually limited to 6 m and its depth
is kept 2 to 3 times of the diameter.

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 Trench Silos
• An unlined trench silo can be made easily without involving any
investment on building materials such as brick, cement and sand.
• Once made, repairs and maintenance are limited to smoothing the
side walls and cleaning the drains.
• Lined trench silos are preferred to avoid spoilage.
• Filling, packing and sealing of the silage must be carefully done like
any other horizontal silo.
• Drainage water should not be allowed to enter or collect near the
trench.

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Example : work out the economical diameter and depth of a
silo to store sufficient quantity of silage for a herd of 400
diary cows having an average body weight of 450 kg each.
The cows are fed silage for 200 days a year. Make necessary
assumptions.
Assumptions:
1 m3 silage weighs= 650 kg
Thickness of silage feed per day (t) = 10 cm
Each cow is fed 3 kg of silage per 100kg of the body weight.
Solution:
Silage fed per cow = 450*3/100 =13.5 kg
Total quantity of silage fed per day = 13.5 * 400 = 5400kg
Volume of silage fed per day = 5400/650 =8.3 m3
Allowing 15% for losses the actual volume required
= 8.3 *1.15 = 9.55 m3
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If ‘d’ is the diameter of the silo in meter, the volume of silage
removed per day from the silo= π/4 *d2 *0.1 m3
Equating the above two volumes,
π/4 *d2 *0.1 = 9.55 m3
d2 = 121.8 m2
d= 11.0 m
Since, the diameter is more than 6 m, considering 4 pits of
d2 = 121.8 m2 / = 30.45 m2
d= 5.5 m
Depth of silo = 0.1 *200 = 20 m
Therefore, 4 pit silo of 5.5 m dia. And 20 m depth are required.
OR
We can built 8 pit silo of 5.5 m dia and 10 m depth.
5/26/2023 Lectures Note by Er. DR Bagale 10
 Food Grain Storage Structure
• Storing in bags in a house
• Storing in bags either in godowns
• Storing in indigenous storage structures and
traditional devices such as baskets, theka, earthen
pots,
• Modern storage structures

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 Requirement of good storage structure
• Should provide adequate protection from rodents,
birds, insects, mites etc.
• Should permit aeration and fumigation when required.
• Should prevent losses due to moisture and
temperature etc.
• Should permit easy inspection
• Should facilitate proper cleaning
• Should be economical on unit storage cost basis.

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 Traditional Storage Structures
• Woven Bamboo Containers Thek
Bhakari
– Bhakari
– Thek
• Earthen Container
– Kothi
– Dhanari
– Ghampo/Gagro
• Metal Container

5/26/2023
• Kothi Lectures Note by Er. DR Bagale
• Dhanari Steel Drum 13
5/26/2023 Lectures Note by Er. DR Bagale 14
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 Bhukhari Type
• Cylindrical in shape
• Made of mud or combination of mud and
split bamboo
• Raised above the ground by wooden or
masonry platform
• Floor
• Walls
• Roof
• Improved type – same structure
• Rat proofing cones
• Grains – wheat, gram, paddy, maize and
sorghum
• Capacity – 3.5 – 18 t

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Kothar type
• Store – paddy, maize,
sorghum, wheat
• Capacity – 9-35 t
• Structure – box
• 5cm thick wooden planks
and beams
• No gap between the planks

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 Morai type

• Grains – paddy, maize, sorghum

• Capacity – 3.5 – 18 t

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 Bagged storage system
• Storage capacity is from 25 tonnes
• Generally the length is about twice the width or
greater
• The entire structure should be moisture proof
• Large size doors of 2.4 x 2.4 m and top ventilators
• Each door is provided with a light overhanging hood
• It should be provide with ventilators – having wire
netting and shutter

5/26/2023 Lectures Note by Er. DR Bagale 19

5/26/2023 Lectures Note by Er. DR Bagale 20
Design a bag storage structure for storing 250 tonnes of paddy.
Assume reasonable data where necessary.
Solution:
Design capacity of the storage structure = 250 T = 250,000 kg
Capacity of a bag of 100*60*30 cm = 75 kg of paddy
Hence, number of bags = 250,000/75 =3340
Size of stack:
Let there be 10 bags in length and 10 bags in width in a stack.
Therefore, No of bags /layer = 10*10 =100
If there are 12 layers in a stack, total number of bags/stack
= 100*12 = 1200
Hence, the number of stacks required
= 3340/1200 = 2.78 =3 (approx.)

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Space required by each stack
Length = 10*1.0= 10.0 m
Width = 10*0.6 = 6.0 m
Height = 12 *0.3 = 3.6 m
The clear distance between the walls and the ends of stack = 0.8 m
The clear distance between the stacks = 2.0 m
Hence , the length of floor
= (3*6.0)+(2*2.0)+(2*0.8) =23.6 m
And the width of the floor
= (10*1.0)+(2*0.8) = 11.6 m
Therefore, overall dimensions of the godowns may be taken as
24.0m * 12.0 m.

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