information:highlighting, information:classification
Dangers of loading process

Filling a silo requires parking two tractors very close to each other, both running at full power and with live PTO shafts, one powering the silo blower and the other powering a forage wagon unloading fresh-cut forage into the blower. The farmer must continually move around in this highly hazardous environment of spinning shafts and high-speed conveyors to check material flows and adjust speeds, and to start and stop all the equipment between loads.

Preparation for filling a silo requires winching the unloader to the top, and any remaining forage at the base that the unloader could not pick up must be removed from the floor of the silo. This job requires that the farmer work directly underneath a machine weighing several tons suspended fifty feet or more overhead from a small steel cable. Should the unloader fall, the farmer will likely be killed instantly.