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west central Iowa | The Harvestores on my farm have been in continous use since 1967. The silage structure is on its third unloader which was purchased slightly used after being rebuilt, cost was $4000. Breather bags have been replaced once. Total maintenance costs are probably less than $25000 in 44 years. If you figure 500 ton of silage per year thats only a little over $1/ton cost for unloading and 500 ton per year is probably conservative as some years was filled several times, something you can not do very well with a stave. I'm not saying I would build one now, but I think they have got a bad rap they did not necessarily deserve. Part of that was Harvestore's fault for saying you could cut alfalfa and just let it wilt before you chopped it. That makes poor feed and it's very hard on unloaders and thats probably why some unload so slow. Mine will unload corn silage as fast as the flight elevator will take it up to the feeder wagon it would take a lot of guys with forks to do that. My trench silo is about 300 yards from my machine shed so by the time I drive the feeder wagon there and go back and get the loader tractor I can about have a load loaded out of the harvestore. Presently I use the silage structure to store cornstalks mixed with corn syrup. Some are harvested behind the combine with a flail head chopper and some are baled and ground to fill the silo later. This feed can be used for cows or feeder catle with corn added. As far as the bunk feeder I would much rather stand in the shed and watch it work than drag a feeder wagon around and I've done both. It's a lot nicer when I don't have to plug in and start 2 tractors to feed cattle or unhook the feeder wagon every time I load. As far as labor to fill the silo, maybe it takes a little longer to chop than to bale, but once it is in the silo most of the work is done, after it is baled you have to haul it in, store it, grind it, load it, and then feed it. | |
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cost to move Harvestore
