Grain Silo Layout

What happens with grains in a silo, depends primarily on the type of the silo. For instance, some silo constructions will provide ventilation systems backed up with temperature controls. Furthermore, silos can enable grain cleaning, drying or fumigation. As opposed to that, some silo structures will only serve as a storage for already dried and cleaned grain.

The exact process of grain post-harvest management varies within each silo, depending on its characteristics.

However, here is a description of the most basic grain post-harvest handling within one silo type, as example to explain the facility outlay.

Firstly, grains are delivered into an underground pit that is protected from the rain and designed in such a way that transport vehicles can easily reach it. Secondly, the system elevates the grains from the pit to the top of the silo by using conveyor belts. When the grains reach the top of the silo, they can be diverted into grain bins for storage, or to hoppers for further transport. Grains can be released from the bottom of the bin into the pit at any time, and again later carried to the conveyor belt in order to be transferred to another bin (e.g. drying bin).

Click here to view a video that explains how a grain silo works.