harvestore silos

I don't know much about these big blue towers. A while back I heard some say they were very expensive and lots of maintenance, some swore by them and some swore at them. Neighbor who no longer farms has one, told me it was worthless, and used to hear others say they had good resale value. Are they still being made and sold? Who has one and whats your experiences?

There are businesses that still service them. I don't believe they are made (would have to research AO Smith) and there are plenty of used units around. When new they were extremely expensive and the proven benefits were few. In a lot of instances they were the financial undoing of a given farm operation. Guys could make them cash flow under the most optimal circumstances but when milk, corn, whatever declined in price or the farmer had other issues the heavy debt aggravated an already tough situation. I am all for new technology that can add to the bottom line but the guys who were inclined to avoid debt at every turn more often than not survived the bad times a lot longer than the guys who put up blue silos or fancy parlors.

Most of them around here have been taken down. The few left are used to store corn. I don't know of any that are used for silage in this area

There is one in the area where I use to live and he uses it to dry lumber in.

I have two. They work if you keep them maintained. You also have to be diligent in keeping them air tight. A O Smith is no longer in business.

I never have had issues with mine as far as forage quality but you needed to watch how you put hay ledge in or you could make problems for yourself. You want the hay drier than you can harvest it in a pit or bag. In the Harvester you want the moisture to be around 40%. Much dryer and it will not ensilage correctly and too wet an it will really work the unloader. Also you want the cut length to be no longer than 1-1 1/2 inches at the most. Guys caused themselves problems by chopping too wet and too long.

Also the unloaders need the chains to be kept maintained. They need the drags to be kept sharp and not worn too short. I pull my unloaders at least once each year and service them. There are several places that make aftermarket parts for them.

They require that that they are air tight. You need to pressure check them every year and repair anything that needs it to keep them air tight. Also switching the breather bags to external made them much easier to use and keep air tight.

Here is my take on the problems many had with them.

1) Few livestock guys are good maintenance guys. They usually just do not have the time with livestock chores. So I know guys that never pulled their unloaders until they broke down. So they then had high repair cost on them. Where a sharpened drags and chain tightening turns into a full chain replacement.

2) Many guys really did not under stand how they unload. They create a dome over the unloader and then feed down the center first and edges last. If you put too wet of forages in them the center dome will not form correctly and the unloader has the weight of too much silage on it.

3) Poor forage harvester maintenance as far as knifes and shear bar. They then get a long shaggy cut that makes the unloader work twice as hard. It is kind of like how fiber bond works in concrete. Too long it pins itself together.

4) Air bags and valves that need cleaned an are not, then they do not keep the silo air tight. Then you get poor silage because of too much air.

They have been replaced by other ways to make silage. Mainly bags for smaller producers and large pits/bunkers for large operations. The silo unloaders are not very fast when unloading. With a large herd to feed today they just are too slow. Plus the cost per ton is high if you have to hire the repairs done. If I had them gone and the money back I would not replace them. I would pour a large concrete slab and use all silage bags. These two where used when we bought them. New they would have been 3-4 times as high in price. Some of the larger ones where in the 100K range back 30 years ago.

Status symbol of the 70s.

There were a few around here everybody called them blue tombs all of the are in disrepair now.

Back when they were the rage in the 1970's I recall a thousand dollars per vertical foot as the price when new. I knew of one that was 90 feet tall and cost the owner 90,000 dollars. When he sold out roughly fifteen years later the silo brought 5000 dollars at his auction. One variable on cost is the concrete required for the base. I've heard where that (extreme amount needed) pushed the cost to nearly 1200 dollars per vertical foot.
I wish I could remember the cost per gallon stored on the SlurryStore units for this discussion. A lot of those went up in this area, too.
You have made some excellent points on the maintenance including a couple I never heard discussed before. No doubt what you mentioned contributed to the demise of a lot of operations but I would still list too easy financing to get and not leave any wiggle room for bad times as reason number one.

There are still a few in operation in my area.The unloaders are what cost so much too maintain. They break down pretty often and are a PITA to work on.At one time ther were approx. 30 dairy farms in my little county. Now I think there are 5.

I got a haylage unit,we got tired of dumping money in it so we converted it to a top unloader.We put a Hanson ring drive in it and have been smiling ever since.We put $7400 in it the first two yrs we lived here,the 3rd yr Harvestore said it needed a new floor and it would be $15000.The maintenance cost is unbelievable.

You bought a farm with one that had been maintained poorly. The unloaders where high priced to fix using Harvester parts. The after market parts are half price. I can also get Stainless steel ones that are about what Harvester charges for steel ones.

My cost per ton usually runs around $3-4 to keep them in good shape. The floors get damaged with loose unloader chains. I will take the harvester unloader any day over a top unloader. I have a two top unloaders silos that cause me more problems than the harvester unloaders. The two top unloaders silos are coming down this year. I did not fill them the last two years because of the unloaders being shot.

Like I posted below. I would not put any type of up right silos up if I was doing it over today. Bags and or bunkers are a much better way to feed today. Both are faster and bags give you more flexibility.

I noticed yesterday that JD has a sileage baler, 9 series. Very heavy duty to stand up to the weight of the wet roll. The next thing I see is a white plastic wrapper for wrapping the rolls to keep the air out.

Sounds like a solution to the old silo. They don't use silo's for sileage down here. They make a pile on the ground and cover it with more white plastic. As they feed it, they just roll the plastic back.

I guess the new roller and sacks is another way to preserve your feed.

Mark

I have never been around one but product literature for water tanks that looked identical came over my desk in the last year. I'm guessing it was a slurry store marketed for municipal water.

Couple of old brothers in the dairy business here about 30 years ago leased two of them. When they decided to retire a few years later, they told the leasing company to come get them. Tearing them down cost them $70,000 to get out of the lease.....

Guy I worked for told me the dairy farmer around the corner put 2 or 3 of them up, I can't remember how many he's got, anyway he said he couldn't farm without them, a few years later he put in bunk silos, and the harvestors and sitting there not being used!

Near all of the "Bule Monuments" around here are either empty, or have been converted to hold dry grain/corn. Too slow to unload, and too costly to maintain ,compared to Bunkers. I ca think of atleast 20, and maybe 4 hold forage they where built for. Bruce

They were not a grand a foot in the 70s. My 50 foot grain unit with sweep auger was around $22,000 on 1976. My 70 foot with chain unloader and 70 foot Harvestore bunk feeder was $49,000. Had annual unloader maintenance, replaced two sprockets and a chain about every three years, for about $2500. Today, baggers make good sense....when the cows go you can easily re-sell the equipment.

Many years ago a land assessor told dad they were 'blue coffins' financially. Jim

Not much business since the lawwwuit they lost.

The deal was to be 100% airtight. Bottom unload, could keep adding more even when not empty.

Were called tha auction markers in the 1980s, drive towards the blue silo and that is where the bankruptsy auction is....

Today bunkers and plastic tubes offer more flexability and size.

Those that worked closely with them and maintained them got along good with them, but they cost a lot, and cost a lot to maintain.

--->Paul

They did make good landmarks.

I had guys back in the day tell me that is what it cost them. Of course the 1970's were a decade of moderate to aggressive price increases per year. Look at how much a 100 horsepower tractor or 6 row combine increased from 1970 to 1980. The Harvestore I am talking about was erected in the summer of 1978. If you paid for your system in 1975 then erected in 1976 you are talking almost three year's difference. Your dealer might have been more aggressive on pricing, too. Harvestore dealers were running flat out busy with a waiting list around these parts. Dad considered one in 1973 for 1974 (do not remember the price quote) but decided against it and that was a good thing.

We were looking at a farm that had several including a slurry tank and did some initial investigation into what they were worth. The blue tops are older and at that time didn't have any value. The newer white tops they would take down and pay a few thousand for them. Obviously depends on hight and width. Slurry tanks were worth more because farmers still wanted them. Also looked at converting them over to grain storage and decided not the best idea. In the 60's when they were new I wanted one badly, but knew we couldn't afford the extravangance. A local feeder operation put up six in a row. Real impressive but the owner although wealthy lived beyond her means and finally went bankrupt. Horses were her downfall. Knew a technician whose father rented a place that had one. He claimed it could be a maintainance nightmare. Had many problems with the bottom unloader and his father wouldn't work on it due to the danger of the overhead silage. Landlord paid the dealer to fix it. Believe they used some device to ensure the silage didn't fall on the repair man.

lots of people around here called them blue banks.
as in instead of putting money into bank they spent money on blue silos

The unloaders slide out the side. There are only a few places that they can quit that make them harder to get out. Like I said below if you pulled them regularly and maintained them they worked fine. I have less problems with my bottom unloaders than the top unloaders I have.

we have two that we still use, both for high moisture corn. there is not a better way to store high moisture corn. one silo was built for haylage and you had to watch what you put into them. on the dry side was the best bet. couldn't beat the quality that came out but if you were impatient you would pay. the unloaders were very slow if you had alot of cows to feed but dad had 54 cows so it was never a problem for us. when we added cows we needed more corn storage so now all haylage is kept in the bunk. they were a money maker if mantained and used properly. if not they would cost you a bunch.

There is a company near me that still sells Harvestores. See the link below...
Do guys with stave silos have trouble keeping the silo air tight?

http://www.pennjerseyproducts.com/

I've seen their ads. Depending on where you lived back in the day there were three or four Harvestore dealers around but their territories were exclusive. Empire Agri-Systems out of Auburn serviced most of the Finger Lakes region if I recall correctly.
Stave silos do have problems staying tight over time. The biggest problem area was around the doors although I have heard of air leakage around the staves, too. I want to say there was a concrete stave silo offered that was designed for bottom unload plus unloaders made to convert conventional uprights other than the doors.
I was trying to recall dad's inquiry into a Harvestore that I mentioned earlier. I don't think it got past knowing it was considerably more than a stave unit. He never did put in another silo past the two that were already on the place at the time of the Harvestore inquiry.

A little bit OT here. Back in the early eighties, a farm was sold, and for whatever reason, they wanted to get the silage out of a Harvestore. Either the unloader wasn't working, or it was too slow. So, they opened up the bottom , and started pulling the material out with a backhoe. The silage hung up, and eventually all slid down in one big slug, which created a vacuum in the top, as the air couldn't get in fast enough to replace it. The top of the silo was crushed. Somebody said it looked like an airplane had run into it.

Since you mentioned it I now recall they only used the device to hold up the silage if it failed inside the silo and couldn't move it. I have zero experience with them, only repeated that person's opinion. His father's contract with the landlord stated the tenant wouldn't work on the unloaders so perhaps he wasn't great on maintainance or just ignored pending problems because someone else would pick up the pieces.

There are still being made 24 hours a day 2 12 hour shifts by Engineered Storage Products Company, Dekalb, IL...The new Harvester Silos are up to 106 feet tall and come with a 30 hp
unloader that will unload 400 pounds per minute and even comes with a push button option to open the fill door and insert the defector so you don't have to climb the structure anymore complete with sensors
Slurry Stores Are still being made too The PCA is making almost ever hog operation in Iowa that has a in ground pit install a slurry store do to ground water contamination,,,they are made as big as 204 feet in diameter

I love my three harvestore silos, would never go with out them. If anyone has any harvestore memorabilia, I would be interested in buying it. Thank You