Silo content monitoring system

A silo content monitoring kit for a silo comprising:

• a shell;
• a hopper;
• an outlet aperture located at or towards the base of the hopper;
• a discharge tube connected to the outlet aperture;
• a rotatable auger located within the discharge tube;
• and
• a plurality of support struts for supporting the shell, hopper, and outlet aperture above ground level,
• the silo content monitoring kit comprising:
• a strain gauge and a set of fixings for retrofitting the strain gauge to a support strut of the silo;
• a motion sensor and a set of fixings or connections for retrofitting to the discharge tube of the silo so as to monitor movement of the auger;
• a read-out device;
• a central processing unit with a calculating means, a real-time clock, and an input/output interface connected to the strain gauge, the motion sensor and the read-out device;
• and
• a wiring harness for connecting the strain gauge, motion sensor and read-out device to the central processing unit, which when fitted to the silo is configured such that:
• during a night time interval, the central processing unit is adapted to monitor an output of the strain gauge to ascertain an overall weight of the silo, subtract a tare weight from the overall weight to obtain an overnight silo content weight measurement;
• during a daytime interval, the central processing unit is adapted to monitor an output of the motion sensor and for each rotation or part-rotation of the auger, calculate an estimated dispensed weight;
• and
• the central processing unit is adapted to output, via the read-out device, a subtractive silo content weight estimate being the overnight silo content weight measurement, minus the estimated dispensed weight.