Harvestore Silo

Anonymous-0 · Oct 22, 2008

Forty years ago the blue silo was all the rage, now not many to be seen and fewer being used. Is the company out of business? Neighbor had one and the unloader was costly to repair is what I heard.

Never hear it mentioned on the board here, even the Ford Select o speed gets some press.

Just wondering is all.

Don-Wi · Oct 22, 2008

They're still around and kicking, but the unloader is a major reason not too many people talk about them or are willing to get new ones. A neighbor just had theirs taken down (20x80 or so) and it was shipped overseas.

When you think about an unloader removing feed from the bottom of a 20x80 silo(or even bigger), it's no wonder they're costly to repair, not to mention a PITA to fix.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Anonymous-0 · Oct 22, 2008

Around here we call them blue tombstones and many left customers with memories of lawsuits against a bankrupt company. Yeah they were nice when new back in their day we had a push button feed room worked great till something broke down. Lots of maintenance = lots of cost. The loaders were built tough but get worn out with silage acid eating on them constantly so when they got older there was always something to fix to keep them going. Old silos that sit a while took new air breather bags, new granite epoxy floor, loader fixed up or replaced and never can get a old silo to seal good as when new. The company made the mistake of touting their silos for high moisture grain storage business too with huge silos that were never sealed good by fly by night dealers that went bankrupt and lots of lawsuits resulted leaving a very BAD taste in customers mouths. Many having corn in them they could have got a good price for selling that went black ruined were in trouble to pay for them too. Many areas they were sold and then no dealers close to service and having to pay a crew to travel long ways was too much cost.

Anonymous-0 · Oct 22, 2008

I thought they were great fun to use, we always filled it with wet milo and then refilled through the winter with milo out of the bins. The feed house is built right up against it so we could grind and load the feedwagon indoors. Mine has been empty for about ten years now, it has not run even once since the unloader was rebuilt. It serves as a deer stand these days.

rrlund · Oct 22, 2008

A friend of mine had one EXPLODE a few years ago. He took the insurance money and had a new one put up and still uses it. What happened was,it had some haylage left in it and the unloader broke. It sat for a year or so,but they wanted to clean it out to put high moisture corn in it.It was a wet fall,a few days before the start of deer season. So,he left early and went to the U.P. His wife and hired man were in the barn,I don't rememeber now if it didn't smell right or what,but she called the dealer and they told her to seal it up until they got there. Well,that thing started creaking and groaning after a while. It exploded and blew the roof on to the roof of the tool shed. Honest to God,that thing looked like a crushed beer can. They had to get a crane out of Lansing to finish taking it down.

Formerly PaMike · Oct 22, 2008

Still guys putting them up in my area. There is a local dealer about 20 minutes away. Neighbor just put a high moisture shell corn one up 3 years ago. There is an amish outfit that advertises that they will convert them to top unload. The idea of the bottom unload sounds good, in that you can fill from top while feeding out of the bottom, the unloaders where always an issue though.

JoshuaGA · Oct 22, 2008

Know of two sets around here, tall haylage one and shorter high moisture grain one, one set empty, one still has some silage left in it. Though of getting one for grain storage to replace a couple of bins, not sure on that.

JoshuaGA

Anonymous-0 · Oct 22, 2008

ALL silo unloaders are an issue. That's one of the biggest reasons for the dramatic decline in conventional silo use.

Glenn F.

RodinNS · Oct 22, 2008

They're very much still in business. I know that.
I think you'd find that most are now used for high moisture grain though... or at least most that are in this general area. The oxygen limiting aspect where feed out rate is not important is their main feature I believe. With top unloaders or bunkers you've got to take 4-6" off the face every day to keep ahead of spoilage. With the bottom unloader you take it out as you please.
All that said, I've never heard much else about them but curses.

Rod

BLinWMI · Oct 22, 2008

Harvestore has come up with an unloader that is amazingly fast. There are 2 farms south of Grand Rapids that have them. Tha new model is the XL and it replaces the Atlas model. I haven't seen the unloader run but did get a good look at it out at World Dairy Expo. I am sure it is still way to expensive but by looking at it, it is quite a bit stouter and it sounds like they have the engineering down to move some feed fast. I talked to one guy that had seen the unloader run and he said it would put out feed faster than the Patz 98C and the center drive twin auger Patz he fed out of 20 footers with.
Maybe some of the blue tombstones will be put back to work with a few improved unloaders.

Clint Youse MO · Oct 22, 2008

I have got 2 of them need to come down the feed shed burned in August and the Silos got hot enough that both have a demple in them. Each had about 500 bushel of old corn in the bottom was cleaning it at the time the one that the lids on top were closed burned for 6 weeks gotta figure a way to get them down sometime

Lee in Iowa · Oct 22, 2008

Mine are still in use after 41 years on the oldest one. We haven't had any issues with feed quality since we stopped trying to put in alfalfa haylage after it had wilted for one day. I think that was one of the companies biggest problems telling people they could do that. Once we started letting the alfalfa cure out and chopping it in the morning with some dew on it we got a lot better feed and less unloader problems. Of course there is maintenance but what machinery doesn't have maintenance. We never had any problems with corn keeping in the grain structures and the cost of a breather bag once in a while is more than offset by the savings in not drying. And I love feeding cattle in the winter without starting a tractor. Lee

730 virgil · Oct 22, 2008

lots of guys around here called them blue banks.
that is you didn't put your money in the bank you put them into paying for silos.

Moline_guy · Oct 23, 2008

I know of a few in the area that use to be used for silage because they were feedlots at the time, but have swithed to being grain farmers and converted them for dry grain. They are equipped with aeriation tubes, not sure how they fill it, someone said they can be filled by reversing a vacualator???. They said they have had no trouble using them for grain, don't know if they fill them full or not.

Harvestore Silo

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

Don-Wi

Well-known Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

rrlund

Well-known Member

Formerly PaMike

Member

JoshuaGA

Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

RodinNS

Well-known Member

BLinWMI

Member

Clint Youse MO

Member

Lee in Iowa

Member

730 virgil

Well-known Member

Moline_guy

Well-known Member

Similar threads