The document discusses different types of animal feed and feed storage facilities. There are two main types of feed: fodder, which is food given directly to animals, and forage, which animals obtain by grazing. Common forms of fodder include hay, silage, and mixed rations. Feed can be stored in various structures like commodity sheds, bunkers, silos, and bags. Proper site selection and construction methods help ensure feed quality and safety.

1. 2013-ag-4471
2011-ag-2360

2. FEED
Food given to domestic
animals in the course of
animal husbandry. There are
two basic types, fodder and
forage.

3. FODDER
Food given to the animals
(including plants cut and
carried to them), rather
than that which they
forage for themselves
(see forage). It includes
hay, straw, silage,
compressed and oils and
mixed rations, and
sprouted grains and
legumes’.

4. FORAGE
Is plant material (mainly
plant leaves and stems) eaten
by grazing livestock.
Characteristics affect which
feedstuff is the best choice
for an operation.

5. Types of Feed Storage
• Commodity sheds
• BUNKERS.
•Different types of silos.
(1)Tower silos. Bags silos
etc.

6. Site selection
Feed storage facilities should be sited on land
that is: easily accessible (e.g. close to the feed
pad if you have one) and relatively flat at least
45 meters from any farm dairy at least 50
meters away from waterways, open drains or
dams, and the catchment areas of bores; further
away if the land is steep, soils are coarse
textured, or ground water may enter sensitive
waterways well away from gullies or other
places where run-off catchment water can flow
into the storage area.
Silage leach ate should never enter waterways as
it is highly toxic to aquatic life.

7. Construction
The walls and floor of a silage bunker
must be capable of withstanding the hard
knocks of tractors and other machinery
as well as resisting corrosion from leach
ate. Concrete with a water/cement ratio
less than 0.4:1 should be used. A
concrete floor should be 125 mm thick

8. Low cost bunkers
Low cost bunkers can be made
cheaply from square straw
bales or wooden sleepers.
Contamination can occur with
stones and soil if feed is loaded
directly onto dirt.

9. Cement bunkers are the most expensive option
but minimize wastage, and if designed well, drain
well. Adjacent bunkers reduce the number of
walls required.
. Ensure floor slope aids drainage.
Concrete bunkers
The silage bunker floor should be watertight and
extend out beyond the bunker walls. Construct a
nib wall along the sides. This will keep freshwater
out and leachate in.

10. Silage bunker construction
construction method uses a heavy duty
reinforced concrete floor with concrete tilt
panel walls, either 1.8m or 2.4m high. The
lean the walls out slightly at the top,
meaning that when the silage shrinks in
the stack, it maintains contact with the
walls. This reduces the risk of spoiled feed
by minimizing the air gap that could
otherwise form here.
The juices that leach out from feed can be
very aggressive on concrete, resulting in
corrosion and damage to the concrete
surface.

11. Bunker roofs should be high enough
to allow sufficient
working space for front end loaders
and for unloading semi-trailers.
Eaves could be considered to
provide protection from rain.
Covered bunkers

12. The bunkers can be covered with a
sliding metal-roofed structure. The
sliding roof is pulled back to allow a
tip truck to tip the feed or into the
bunkers, and then close it afterwards
to keep weather off the contents.

13. The "commodity sheds" are made from
precast concrete walls that form bins
generally 8 1/2 ft. high and 12 to 14 ft. wide..
A roof is build which slopes down from front
to back, leaving an opening in front that's
high enough for a semi truck to back up into
the shed and dump its load.
. Width and length of the bins depends on
herd size, but most farmers build sheds with 4
to 8 different bins
Commodity sheds

15. The following criteria for
commodity shed design:
1. Slope bays outward so rain and snow melt
don't flow into the storage bays.
2. Pour the concrete floors after the walls
have been poured. This prevents water from
leaking into an adjacent bay when cleaning
between loads.
3. Design the commodity shed to have two
more bins than you think you need. This
allows you to rotate feeds, clean bins between
loads and pre-mix commodities if desired

16. Advantages
• Handle any feed
• Versatile in filling
• Speed of unloading and filling
mixer
Disadvantages
• More shrink expected
• open to weather
• open to rodents
• over feeding
•spillage
• Loader needed

17. The most common type of on-farm feed
storage is the upright vertical silos. Most are
metal but can be wooden, concrete, or of other
materials.
Tower silos

18. In this type storage silos are cylindrical
structures, typically 10 to 90 ft. (3 to 27 m)
in diameter and 30 to 275 ft. (10 to 90 m)
in height .
Tower silos containing silage are usually
unloaded from the top of the pile.

19. Concrete stave silos are constructed from
small precast concrete blocks with ridged
grooves along each edge that lock them
together into a high strength shell. Concrete
is much stronger
in compression than tension, so the silo is
reinforced with steel hoops encircling the
tower and compressing the staves into a
tight ring. The vertical stacks are held
together by intermeshing of the ends of the
staves by a short distance around the
perimeter of each layer, and hoops which
are tightened directly across the stave edges.
Concrete stave silos

20. Low-oxygen silos are designed to
keep the contents in a low-
oxygen atmosphere at all times,
to keep the fermented contents in
a high quality state, and to
prevent mold and decay, as may
occur in the top layers of a stave
silo or bunker. Low-oxygen silos
are only opened directly to the
atmosphere during the initial
forage loading, and even the
unloaded chute is sealed against
air infiltration.
Low-oxygen tower silos

21. Advantage
• Less shrink expected
• More accurate feed out (less over feeding)
• Space spacing
• Self unloading
Disadvantage
• Not compatible with some feeds
• Time to fill bin and mixer
• Need auger or blower

22. Bag silos are heavy plastic tubes, usually around
8 to 12 ft (2.4 to 3.6 m) in diameter, and of
variable length as required for the amount of
material to be stored. They are packed using a
machine made for the purpose, and sealed on
both ends. They are unloaded using a tractor and
loader . The bag is discarded in sections as it is
torn off. Bag silos require little capital
investment. They can be used as a temporary
measure when growth or harvest conditions
require more space, though some farms use them
every year
Bag silos

23. Kinds of silos
 Stack silo
 Simplest type of silo.
 A plastic sheet of 0.1 mm thickness is spread over the
ground, and similarly chopped silage materials on the sheet
are entirely covered with a plastic sheet. Proper tread
pressure and complete sealing are required.

24.  Pit/Trench silo
 A trench silo can be built by simply digging
the ground, but it is better to place plastic
sheets inside to prevent loss.
 A trench silo whose interior is coated with
concrete can be used for a long time

25.  Fenced silo (framed silo)
 The frame is made of bamboo, wooden, iron
materials, etc., the shape of cross section may be
circular or rectangular. and inside is sealed with
plastic sheets.