I’ve always looked at silos with wonderment. Silos fill me with a sense of mystery. Just how do they work? Then I began to notice nearly all of them seemed abandoned. What’s the deal here?

First, let me say that I have long viewed silos as picturesque. They rise from the earth to command the eye. They make fine landmarks for giving directions. “Once you pass the two silos to your left, take the first dirt road to your right.”

Better ways exist today to store crops and grains, and silos have fallen into disuse. They stand as monuments to hard-working men and women, an architectural marvel from another time. They gave a farmer a way to store livestock feed and crops while protecting them from weather, moisture, pests, and spoilage. The classic tall cylindrical concrete or steel silo fermented silage or held dry grains like corn and soybeans. I hear that they’re rarely built today but when they were it was the work of specialized contractors.

Many an old tower silos stands abandoned. I’ve seen one so long in disuse that a fully grown tree has grown up and out it. One stands in lake waters. I see a good many with their tops missing. I can’t say I’ve seen any torn down but it happens. Here today, gone tomorrow.

Now, let me say that my view of silos changed forever when I visited the Bart Garrison Agricultural Museum of South Carolina. Josh Johnson, curator, told me how the museum got its name. Bart Garrison died in a silo. I read his tombstone.

“Bart” James Bartlett Garrison, July 19, 1960 — May 9, 1990, Died In A Farm Silo Accident At Age 29 Years, 9 Months, 16 Days, Christian · Beloved Son And Brother, Gentleman · Farmer · Golfer, Never Married But Looking.

He and his family have my sympathy. He was working on the family’s Denver Downs Farm in Anderson, South Carolina, when grain engulfed him and Matthew Pickens. That shocked me. I had no idea silos could to that.

In the U.S., something like 20 to 30 people die each year in grain entrapment and agricultural confined-space incidents, things like suffocation. Fatality rates for those trapped in grain exceed 50 percent. I looked into the dangers of silos and found four ways they can kill a farmer or farm worker.

Grain Entrapment and Suffocation: Flowing grain acts like quicksand. If a worker steps into a silo while unloading equipment is at work, he can be pulled under and buried in seconds.

Explosions and Fires: Grain dust suspended in the air is highly combustible. A small spark or friction can cause devastating explosions. Josh Johnson told me hot gases can develop and lead to spontaneous combustion and third degree burns.

Toxic Gases: Fermenting silage produces lethal gases like carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, which can quickly displace air and asphyxiate workers. Nitrogen Dioxide, heavier than air, often appears as a yellowish-orange haze that smells like bleach. Inhaling it causes “silo-filler’s disease,” which triggers fluid buildup in the lungs and can be fatal hours later. Fermenting crops release vast amounts of CO₂, which can cause a worker to lose consciousness within seconds and die from asphyxiation.

Structural Failure: Spoiled grain or uneven unloading can create immense internal pressure, leading to sudden collapses.

I’ll never look at a silo the same. And I salute the brave farmers who have worked with them. Here’s a man walking through a gate across a green pasture to check his silo’s moisture levels or do a bit of maintenance. If something goes bad wrong, his silo is about to become a large tombstone. When we sit down to farm-raised food we should never forget that not only is the work hard, it’s often also dangerous.

Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
Email Tom about most anything at at tompol@earthlink.net 

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