Does anyone build tall silos any more or are they all bunker silos? Is it all about cost or are bunker silos better overall. I remember when Dad had a 40' wooden silo built in the early 60's. Guys were walking around the top of the silo with only the thickness of the staves they were on to support them. Made me dizzy just watching them.
- Thread starter Charlie M
- Start date
They are being built as the Mennonites and Amish still use vertical upright silos and a few in the area had silos put up in the last several years. Having said that it is not the business it was back during the 1950's, 1960's, and 1970's. There were a handful of manufacturers back then and no doubt most have discontinued the vertical silo portion of their business or are completely out of business today.
Loosehandle
Well-known Member
- Location
- Wisconsin
One just collapsed here in so. Wisconsin, they had filled with shelled corn. Place also did meat processing, lots of damage but nobody hurt.
db4600
Well-known Member
Hanson has shifted focus to more marketable product. I’ve had some precast plank material supplied by Hanson on a building I’ve been on. They might have put more of those little 30’ silos up at the old Mill’s Fleet Farm stores in the last 30 years than they’ve erected ag silos.
Mike(NEOhio)
Well-known Member
- Location
- Newbury, Ohio
Father in law had one, came as a kit from the old Sears catalog. Had a cyprus roof he sold off and pulled it down some time in the 80's. The staves were repurposed into trusses for a new garage. I still have the hoops and the castings for tightening them. Are the castings worth anything?
Bruce from Can.
Well-known Member
- Location
- Woodville, Ontario, Canada
Tower silos are a contentious topic. Those that have them swear by them or swear at them. Around me there is still quite a few dairy farmers. Most have taken down their tower silos, or they just don’t use them anymore, and have switched to bunks or bags. The key drivers for farmers making the switch are, the silo is old and safety concerns around it falling down if filled again. Or the silo unloaders are shot, and a new silo unloader can run 30Grand!!. Other safety issues are the silo gas danger that is present with tower silos, and the ever present risk of falling from one of the towers. Still I know of a few die hard nose tower silo advocates that have built a few new tower silos in the last 5 years, one guy took down a unsafe old silo and put back a brand new one on the same spot. It now cost around $150,00 to put up a 18x80 stave silo with a unloader. You could have double the storage in a bunker silo for less than half the cost. I have always had bunker silos and wouldn’t ever consider a tower. The bunker can last 50 years, needs no special equipment to fill or unload, and no insurance or taxes . The Mennonite and Amish like them because they fit there no electricity lifestyle, just clumb up and through it down. You pretty well need a loader of some type to unload a bunker.
db4600
Well-known Member
Pa tipped the wooden silo over in ‘78 and put up a Hanson. We also had a Madison on the other side of the barn. There were some Norlings in the neighborhood as well. Hanson and Norling were central Mn companies. Madison a Wisconsin shop. It appears that Madison was shuffled through they ‘80’s and divested in ‘86. Norling had a ding with the court and the business withered as economy grew weak and ownership grew weary. Lefty Norling eventually went to work for Hanson and took up auctioneering.
I think Harvestore still makes and glass lined air tight uprights, but the company has expanded with other lines. A division makes above ground "slurry" storage tanks fo liquid manure. I believe that the "Aqua store" water storage business is probably where the greatest part of the company's income is now.
BarnyardEngineering
Well-known Member
- Location
- Rochester, NY
Agree with the swear by or swear at sentiment.
Nothing beats standing in a nice warm barn and flipping a switch to feed the cows in the middle of a blizzard.
Nothing is worse than having to climb that silo to fix the unloader, or work on the conveyor outside in that same blizzard.
Nothing beats standing in a nice warm barn and flipping a switch to feed the cows in the middle of a blizzard.
Nothing is worse than having to climb that silo to fix the unloader, or work on the conveyor outside in that same blizzard.
tomstractorsandtoys
Well-known Member
The Amish here in sw WI still build lots of silos. I have a friend that has built several used Harvestores in the last few years. They changed to snaplage (corn silage made with a combine head on the chopper to harvest the ear and 1/3 of the stalk)and like the blue silos for that and haylage. I have 2 small silos 14x40's that I use and make 4 or 5 7ft diamater silage bags. I only use the silos because they keep feed better in the summer when I am only feeding a small amount of silage. Tom
around here alot of guys still use them but have out grown them (bigger and bigger dairies)and usually have added bags to the mix. bags seem to be the way to go as there is no structure to worry about (and be taxed on) and you can put them wherever you need them. down side is equipment (bagger) and needing a loader/skid-loader to unload them.
for the old classic stanchion dairy barn i always thought the upright silo next to the barn was the way to go. it was right there, you just flip a switch and it unloads. no need to go out in the weather to scoop out of the bag or bunk. but with larger farms with TMR type feeding the silo unloaders are probably too slow. also need conveyors to move from the silo to the TMR. if you feed in a bunk the upright silo had the advantage of flipping a switch and letting it do all the feeding.
around here (north central Indiana) there are alot of the poured concrete bottom unloading type. don't remember the brand but they had a long shaft up thru the center with chains and flails to knock the silage down. almost ALL of those are standing unused. alot of the harvestors have been switched over to grain storage as the smaller dairymen are getting out of milking.
I always thought the bottom unloaded was a good idea in regard to always feeding out the oldest crop and the option to mix crops (hay in the bottom, corn on top) BUT their design always seemed a bit dangerous/hard to fix to me.
for the old classic stanchion dairy barn i always thought the upright silo next to the barn was the way to go. it was right there, you just flip a switch and it unloads. no need to go out in the weather to scoop out of the bag or bunk. but with larger farms with TMR type feeding the silo unloaders are probably too slow. also need conveyors to move from the silo to the TMR. if you feed in a bunk the upright silo had the advantage of flipping a switch and letting it do all the feeding.
around here (north central Indiana) there are alot of the poured concrete bottom unloading type. don't remember the brand but they had a long shaft up thru the center with chains and flails to knock the silage down. almost ALL of those are standing unused. alot of the harvestors have been switched over to grain storage as the smaller dairymen are getting out of milking.
I always thought the bottom unloaded was a good idea in regard to always feeding out the oldest crop and the option to mix crops (hay in the bottom, corn on top) BUT their design always seemed a bit dangerous/hard to fix to me.
Pete in MD
Well-known Member
- Location
- Central Maryland
It ain't no fun when the center hole plugs up on a top unloader silo.
Ken Macfarlane
Well-known Member
Yes, even with so few left there's still someone getting injured or killed around here related to one. Local boy lost some fingers and mangled his hand in one this summer working on the unloader. Someone else got injured on the blower. With fewer people managing more acres/$ of farm safety is becoming pretty darned important to your family financial situation. There aren't several sons or brothers to step in and cover things while you recover these days.
Absent Minded Farmer
Well-known Member
- Location
- Gehl Country, Wis.
CST Harvestore still makes the big blue ones. There are still a couple companies that pour new ones or put them up with concrete staves. I have no intention of using the one on the farm. I'll dig a trench with a shovel before being cursed with unsticking a frozen unloader at -20F. Had to help a few neighbors chisel theirs out, when I was younger. Forget it. Never again!
Mike
Mike
We had a bunker silo dug into the side of the hill which was a real mudhole at times. Black plastic on top held down by old tires. Most new tall silos are metal.
I see a lot farmers storing grain on the ground with these continuous white plastic tubes. Seems like all the major elevators around here are piling grain on the ground (probably on plastic) and then covering the piles with plastic. Some of them use those concrete highway barriers to contain the pile. They just let those massive piles get rained on till they are finally covered.
Hanson silo built us a new tower silo in 2017. It is the only one I know of in our neighborhood that was built in the last 35 years. It replaced a white Hanson silo built on the farm in 1949. We filled that one right up through 2016, but wanted something safer and with more capacity. They don't fit every farm, but I like them- and I've chopped frozen chunks out of both of our silos many times. The feed quality is excellent compared to some piles I've been around.
Lon
Lon
Even though I am in the Finger Lakes Region silage freezing was an infrequent problem. The feed quality was excellent for smaller farms that only pulled a couple of feet of silage out per day to stay ahead of spoilage. Bunkers tend to work best for large herds where there tends to be a much larger "face" that needs to be removed. Pits or pads just never seemed to work well and you only tended to see them on the most hard luck farms. If I needed to feed silage I would go with silage bags for the small herd size I would most likely keep. I don't get around very well on ladders any more and am unsure of myself. Right now I am waiting for the dew to fully come off so I can go on top of the bin to uncork it and dump a wagon load of soybeans in it.
Bruce from Can.
Well-known Member
- Location
- Woodville, Ontario, Canada
For the past 17 years I have been filling a pit cut
into the side of a hill. I poured a concrete floor right
from the start, there is no mud.
into the side of a hill. I poured a concrete floor right
from the start, there is no mud.
Bruce from Can.
Well-known Member
- Location
- Woodville, Ontario, Canada
My herd is what is no classed as a small fairy herd, just over 100 tue stalls. I have had bags and pits. Bags are good storage, but do cost more, and you have to get rid of the bag. Unless the bag is filled on a concrete pad, the ground in front of the bag becomes a rutted mud hole in November and December. Then in January the ruts are frozen til spring, not much fun either. Silage in bags freezes hard as a rock as much as a foot all around the outside edge.
With a pit that has a concrete floor, only the top can freeze. Very low fixed cost, and any spoiled silage is used as compost. If we loose a animal on the farm, we can compost them, rather than pay the dead stock truck $200.00 to take the corps away. So even the spoiled feed has a use.
With a pit that has a concrete floor, only the top can freeze. Very low fixed cost, and any spoiled silage is used as compost. If we loose a animal on the farm, we can compost them, rather than pay the dead stock truck $200.00 to take the corps away. So even the spoiled feed has a use.
Lots of small dairies around here (western Washington) in the 50's (mostly guys coming back from WWII), and we had a pretty good silo salesman in the area. He ended up building a concrete stave silo on many farms. He emphasized the quality of feed, and sort of glossed over the power and machinery requirements and the labor of putting it up pitching it out. I remember Dad helping a neighbor replace one PTO shaft after another on an Oliver Super 55- it was just too small for silage harvesting and blowing. Silage was also too much work for most dairy operators, who were usually working alone (kids from WWII vets were too young to be of any help yet). As a result, most abandoned silage a couple years after starting it. Then many quit dairying in about 1960, and those that stayed in converted their silage land to pasture and bought more cows, with purchased Alfalfa hay for winter feed. It was about the only way an owner/operator could keep up with the labor. After they got out of dairy, most just raised some beef on the land and got a job in town. Don't know of a single one who ever put up silage again.
The weather can be your friend or your enemy depending on what system you use and the weather from October through March. Late falls and early springs tend to work against non-sealed type systems such as pads. Wet weather is a problem unloading bags but some guys run a tile line or two in the area the bag occupies to mitigate that. Interesting idea with spoilage as compost that seems to get no talk. One way to turn lemons into lemonade.
Kind of strange in a way. Silo's took off here as WWII ended. In many instances the boys never went back to the farm as towns were developing complete with industry. Nobody wanted the drudge work of baling hay plus the economic advantage laid with the farm that got first cutting hay in the quickest so second cutting could come on. More often than not the Months of May and June were poor in terms of making dry hay so farmers tried getting as much hay in the silo as they could.
Donald Lehman
Well-known Member
Never saw a silo unloader that was really reliable for more than 3-4 years. A lot of them didn't work very well brand new! (ask anyone who ever owned an early New Holland silo unloader. On second thought, don't ask) After that they were a bottomless money pit. No matter how good they were, there was always a frozen buildup on the silo walls. Spent a LOT of time in silos forking silage down the chute that the worn silo unloadar blower would puke out in front the the chute door. Poured concrete silos lasted well, concrete stave silos did not. Bottom unloading silo maintenance and repairs were very expensive also. With the advent of larger and larger herds, reliable cold starting tractors and skid steers, the incredibly high price of silos and unloaders, almost everyone around here (except the Amish) use bunkers or ag-bags.
Donald Lehman
Well-known Member
We had a 12X30 Unadilla. It was one of the older types without dowls. had it cabled on all sides to keep the thing from leaning like crazy when it was empty. Used the staves to build a heifer barn somewhere in the early 1960's.
used red MN
Well-known Member
- Location
- Coon Rapids, MN
When grain is piled on the ground there is no plastic
put down. Mostly because during clean up most of it
would get ripped to pieces and just become a
contaminant in the grain. The ground is just leveled
and maybe rolled to make a solid surface. Back in the
70s and 80s the area I lived in NE Kansas was a big
producer of milo or grain sorghum. One year in
particular the area had very good yields. The grain
elevator in our small town of about 75 people made a
pile right on Main Street as well as several other
locations around town. My grandparents lived in the
town. Milo is a fall harvested crop like corn. They did
not practice covering the piles with plastic because
the milo was a small round grain about an 1/8 inch
diameter. It would form a crust that would sort of repel
water. Can’t remember if it was a gathering for
Thanksgiving or Christmas at Grandmas but a bunch
of us cousins went out an climbed all over the grain
piles unknowingly breaking up the crust. My dad
actually worked at the elevator and me being a farm
kid that ..should know better.. I certainly got a stern
butt chewing for causing all that added damage to the
grain stored in the piles. Sorry for going OT. Silos in
that area were probably on 1 in 15 to 20 farms mostly
dairies. Mostly unused these days.
put down. Mostly because during clean up most of it
would get ripped to pieces and just become a
contaminant in the grain. The ground is just leveled
and maybe rolled to make a solid surface. Back in the
70s and 80s the area I lived in NE Kansas was a big
producer of milo or grain sorghum. One year in
particular the area had very good yields. The grain
elevator in our small town of about 75 people made a
pile right on Main Street as well as several other
locations around town. My grandparents lived in the
town. Milo is a fall harvested crop like corn. They did
not practice covering the piles with plastic because
the milo was a small round grain about an 1/8 inch
diameter. It would form a crust that would sort of repel
water. Can’t remember if it was a gathering for
Thanksgiving or Christmas at Grandmas but a bunch
of us cousins went out an climbed all over the grain
piles unknowingly breaking up the crust. My dad
actually worked at the elevator and me being a farm
kid that ..should know better.. I certainly got a stern
butt chewing for causing all that added damage to the
grain stored in the piles. Sorry for going OT. Silos in
that area were probably on 1 in 15 to 20 farms mostly
dairies. Mostly unused these days.
Drove by a small farm this summer in central Pennsylvania. A quick glance revealed a few men inside a cement stave silo about 20 feet tall. Aha, I said to myself, another tower silo coming down. Well, what do you know, drove by the same place the next day and the silo was 15 feet taller! Predominately Dutch area for what its worth. That silo was the first tower I have seen go up in at least the past 15 years.
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