What about the silo?

[Julian]

We just bought a place that has an open-top concrete block silo on it. I have never fed silage, let alone put it up. Is it possible to use these old silos economically, or is it just going to be a good place to hang our Christmas Star?

Just curious,
Julian

 

[mnmtranching]

Nice looking place. 8)

But, nope on the silo, Waaay to much labor involved in that.
Best to use that old silo for hanging ornaments. ;-)

 

[vquinn2]

Hey Julian
Love the OSU!!!!
Go Cowboys!

 

[Stocker Steve]

Upright silos are very labor intensive. Farmers with 25 cows used to do it all by hand with forks and wheel barrows. Guys that expanded to 40-50 cows tried to stick with it by automating to some extent. Most folks have pulled down their upright silo once it needed some repair and gone to plastic bags fed with a front end loader.

My neighbor uses an upright silo to raise broiler chickens for home use. He have never had an escape!

 

[VanC]

But, nope on the silo, Waaay to much labor involved in that.
Best to use that old silo for hanging ornaments. ;-)

I tend to agree. Spent way to many hours in them things in my youth. When you're putting it up, you're leveling the silage off and tamping it down when it's 90 out. When you're feeding, you're up there forking down enough for X amount of cows when it's 20 below. (This was in Wisconsin).

Later had a top end unloader, but it wasn't very reliable and was up there with the fork half the time anyway. Then once you get the silage down, there's the labor in getting it to the cows, unless you've got big bucks to invest in an automatic feeding system, which will also break down from time to time.

Not to mention you have to buy a chopper and blower, plus have a tractor with enough power to blow the stuff up there. Of course the plus side is if you put up hay silage, that's a lot of bales of hay you don't have to mess with. To each his own, but personally, I wouldn't mess with it unless there was no other way.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Had one over east of us. Used it once. Never again. Took up too much time. State had fun increasing the tax on it, then we tore it down. Neighbors were not happy, it was their land mark for getting friends out to their places.

 

[mermill2]

Depending on how wide and how tall, I know a guy that took a 16 foot wide silo, and made a studio apartment. He put one room on top of the other, and put in spiral staircases from the bottom to the top.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Depending on how wide and how tall, I know a guy that took a 16 foot wide silo, and made a studio apartment. He put one room on top of the other, and put in spiral staircases from the bottom to the top.

How did he seal or line the concrete?

 

[mermill2]

Didn;t need to seal, it was a red terra cotta block silo with a roof over it. I would guess that with a concrete stave silo, that you would use some kind of basement sealer, and paint over it , to give it a stucco-like affect.

 

[footballjdtractor]

we fed about 150-200 head every day with a 50 and an 80 foot concrete silo. my cousins now have that feedlot and it is empty. if Me and my dad still owned the place it would still be in use. silos with unloaders are very nice when they are working. yes, as with anything, they sometimes break down. I would try and find a local dealer and get some prices on a used unloader and some belts and make some decisions after that.