Scattered throughout rural Queensland are concrete silos used for fodder.

The Department of Agriculture and Stock promoted the construction of silos for preserving fodder for dairy cows from the 1900s. The silos worked on the principle of storing fodder and eliminating as much air as possible to retard decomposition. The Department recommended that the concrete silo was ‘par excellence the one to construct for permanency and utility above all others’. The Department prepared standard plans for the construction of concrete silos.

The cost of construction was prohibitive for most farmers and so only a relatively small number were built. Most survive as they have been too difficult to demolish.

Silo on farm in Boonah district

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Standard plan prepared by Department of Agriculture and Stock