We had 3 Harvestore silos with Hercules unloaders in them back in the late 50’s. Yes, we pulled the unloaders and short armed them before filling but it didn’t take that long. Just do your maintenance and they worked great. All ours ran into one conveyor system and then to the 70 ft bunk . Just push buttons and watch it work. Thx for the video...
I know that on the farm folks make due with what they have, but using a breaker as a switch is univerally a bad idea. They are not made to be constantly turned on and off, and can malfunction with wear. A worn breaker cost our company $12k because it didn't kick and a Haas CNC fried itself. There was a short inside the machine caused by a stray chip, and it drew so much current through the worn breaker that the main breaker had to trip, but not before it fried a lot of parts in the machine. You can install a switch far cheaper than replacing motors and control boards.
We never had that many of these around me. Most everyone had top unloading concrete silos, some also had bunks or built piles to put up extra feed to use while the silo fermented. I can tell you, I definitely preferred the ring drive unloaders to the surface drive ones- they didn't get stuck nearly as often!
Thanks! I love seeing Harvestors on farms and didn’t know other companies had copied the cobalt blue. Interesting to see how they’re used. Seems like the mechanics shed on all silos are very worn and deteriorating. Lots of places for water to get in and soak up in all the silage and dust.
Why do you want a freestall? We have freestalls at home and if I could of swap you for your setup. Only real pain would be milking. Tractors and loaders used for feeding in freestall seem more unreliable than conveyor and electric motors. If milking is the issue would a robot freestall milker suit your setup
Maybe a trailer TMR wagon. I know you would have to switch elevators around and elevate back in but you might find that it's more versatile in the long run. You'd be able to utilize ag bags as well and be able to feed in different locations. I use to fill feed carts and wheel barrels off of one years ago and feed a lot animals by hand that way.
Wow feed carts and wheelbarros must have taken a long time! I'm always thinking of different things and different ways to do stuff. The small TMR cart would be the easiest with the current setup but if we ever went to a free stall barn then a TMR wagon would be a great idea
When we were milking cows, we had a stationary tmr mixer with a scales. Corn silage had its own conveyor and haylage/high moisture shared a conveyor. After it was mixed, it ran via conveyor to a cross conveyor that we could run into a feed cart for our heifers or else into the bunk feeder in the barnyard, or straight to the barn, where we had a jaylor battery cart to feed out.
mikep7810 it was. The only bad thing was you had to walk for a couple minutes out to the feed room to send more feed into the barn, and it was kind of treacherous in the winter time. The silos were off in the middle of nowhere in relation to the barn itself.
I work for the Eastern Kentucky University farm and we use harvestores and bags. I think both are good for feed preservation. The harvestores do have their issues and are a pricey investment up front. However I’ve seen enough waste from bags because they can be a pain to unload, and you’re constantly contending with plastic. Not to mention possible damage to the bags that can cause lots of spoilage. I do believe you’re right about regular maintenance... they tend to be one of those things that get taken for granted and get left go for too long.
These silos are probably good but as you said, it can be dangerous equipment when something's goes wrong. In Sweden we had a bad fatal accident yesterday in a silo. One guy dead and one serious injured, I don't know if it was a silage or corn silo but it's sad how quick things can go really bad.
Love the TMR idea, Dad never had one either. When I went to college they had one on the college farm. Dad used to give me a hard time about "push button" farming made me too fat. Haha.
I know of some Harvestores with the Laidig unloaders mainly for hmsc but have seen one used for haylage . Cropstore silos also used the Laidig unloader too.
Thanks Mike,great video. Curious if you considered using overhead conveyors to deliver all the feed to the stalls in the barns after leaving a automated blending tank fed by conveyors from all the silos. Yes I think I am dyslexic lol.I usually say things backwards lol.
Iam Arvind from India, I'm trying several methods (cheap) to preserve &store corn silage, vacuum packing with 100kg plastic bag is good but costly, 100kg baling and plastic wraping was also tried and found costly for the plastic used. So I want to try the age old (gold) practice of mini silos. My aim is to convert 40feet shipping container to a home made silo for my high moisture chopped corn crop. Can you tell me the basic science and principles involved inside the silo. My questions are as follows. 1. How is excess air removed from the silo after filling it. 2. In both cases (i. e) top and bottom unloading method. After removing some portion of silage daily there will be formation of empty space in the top. How you are avoiding the air ingression in the empty space. Please reply for my question in brief If possible Send me any videos / write-ups link showing the internal arrangement so that I can learn.
There are 2 doors on top of the silo, 1 the forage goes in and a 2nd that the air goes out of when the silo is being filled. There are also pressure relief openings so the silo doesn't build too much pressure and explode. The cheapest way you can store your forage is to pile it and pack I down with a tractor then cover it. Its hard to explain everything you would need to consider building your own silo in 1 comment. I'd be very cautious
@@mikep7810 thanks a lot sir for your valuable reply. Only one doubt. As you said in pit /bunker silos there is compaction done by tractor tyres and tractor self weight. Is there any compaction system in the silo topside or is there any vacuum pulling system in the top. Please answer in one line only.
I have worked on farms with bottom unloaders and top unloaders and pit or sacks and ag bags even though the bottom unloaders costs more money and require a little more attention and take a little more time unloading pennies to dollars are more cost efficient The pit silios are constantly requiring some form of matainance plus you need a lot of equipment to to the job and if it isn’t done right as far as packing covering and unloading it you are just feeding your cows moldy feed that’s not all the weather affects it the ag bag is very wasteful and you can’t reuse the bag you have to deal with the plastic unloading it and getting rid of it birds and animals can put holes in it and the weather affects it. Top unloading silos are ok but you have to climb it all the time to lower the unit and it freezes up in winter but they ok if you don’t mind the exercise so bottom unloaders are good as long as you don’t put wet corn or grass in them and it’s cut short and unaform in size even you think the grass or corn is to dry it will surprise you on the moisture levels now I would not recommend to put hay that could be baled in it then you will have a fire so if I had a choice on up right silo and pit or bag I would go silo In my opinion
Mike why is the harvesters auger outside of the barn everything is exposed to rain snow and ice it seems it would have been better to build onto to keep everything in the dry.
Nice clip Mike. Do you guys have a generator available to power your feeding systems if you lose power or do you go to plan B if that happens? Thats a pretty handy setup you have there.
Pretty much. The laidig is an auger with teeth on it where the harvestore is an arm with a chain with teeth that goes around the arm as the arm goes around the silo
We cant put the forage in too wet. We look to put it in around 50-55%. Usually 3 cuts of alfalfa fills our haylage unit and usually around 30 acres or so of corn fills the silo
Excellent video. Whatever TMR mixer you guys choose to go with make sure you get to use it before you buy it. Make sure it's easy to get around the Rissler is a good choice a little harder to drive. Compared to the Jay-Lor. You guys would save so much time and feeding you would be able to add on another 20 cows LOL hope you have a great day
Thank you Eric. We have a farm show up in Syracuse (an hour away) in February so before I go up I'm gonna take some measurements so I know if they will fit or not
Whatever Eric at the Farming Life says do the opposite. He knows nothing about farming. I am surprised he even comments here. This guy is at least a second generation farmer and Eric bad mouths anyone that is not a first generation farmer. Eric raises feeder cattle and doesn't even know enough to take the horns off. He jams his cattle into pens that are way too small. What other farmer would take their 4th month old baby out and bounce him around in a skid loader.
They are pretty similar. I actually have a habit of calling ours harvestores. Main difference is the silo unloaders were we have laidig unloaders in our sealstores
@@daleglezen5197 Corn silage, high moisture corn, and protein grain twice a day. Then haylage in the afternoon and hay at night. If the cows are outside during the day its hay in the afternoon and haylage at night
