Posted by JD Seller on April 13, 2013 at 06:49:44 from (208.126.196.144):
In Reply to: harvestore silos posted by farmerjohn on April 13, 2013 at 05:56:12:
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They have been replaced by other ways to make silage.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.
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