WOODSTOCK, Ont. — Securing the plastic cover on your silage bunker with used tires is an arduous and labour-intensive task that always runs the risk of workers inadvertently punching a hole in the cover.
To deal with that problem, a Wisconsin company has devised a simple machine called the Tire Shooter to mechanically place tires, thus keeping people off the silage pile or silage bunker.
Tire Shooter is basically a long arm attachment for skid steer loaders and wheel loaders. The skid steer loader unit has a reach of 16 feet, while the wheel loader unit has a reach of 23 feet.
Andrew Roosendaal, who owns Zuidervaart Agri-Import in Ontario, was at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show in September to demonstrate how quickly Tire Shooter can dispense with its full load of 110 semi truck sidewalls. Although Tire Shooter handles full tires, he said using semi tire sidewalls is far more efficient. He also sells the sidewalls for $2.50 each.
“The Tire Shooter is big time popular in Wisconsin, where they have all the dairy farms. There’s probably 500 units just in that state,” Roosendaal said.
“There’s a hydraulic motor that drives something like a bale chain on the old bale elevators. The chain runs inside the arm and drags tires out to the end. The operator gives the control a bump wherever he wants to drop a sidewall. When you load the arm, you just stick the wand into the row of tires, then pull the control into reverse and that pulls them all in up on the arm. You can pick up 110 sidewalls in one load.
“It makes things a lot easier to cover big piles because you can reach the tires all the way to the centre of the bunker. Then you’ve got no people up there walking around, so it cuts down on your labour costs and there’s no punctures in the plastic.”
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The list price is $5,900, plus shipping.
