I seen that video too and some similar articles. You likely don't want to put stuff that is still wet inside the silo and you want to make sure you don't try to overload it either. Yeah repairing the Harvestores can be expensive but the good part about the Harvestores that I read, you wouldn't have to deal with as much food losses than you would in a concrete stave silo. Sometimes in severe bad weather, the tops of the concrete stave silos get collapsed or damages. I seen quite a few of them with missing tops. Hopefully your cement stave silo will last for a while for you. you might want to save money on repairing or improving your Harvestore silos.

Not all silo's had tops on them. It is an option, and does help preserve both forage and unloader. The Harvestore is based on limiting oxygen to the feed , where typically other silo's have the top face exposed to air. Both require a lot of management skills, as well as maintaining the unloading equipment. Bunker storage is replacing upright silo's on large operations, and covered piles and Ag Bags are more useful on smaller operations. Less capital expenses for the latter.

The bad part about the concrete silos is that you would sadly create more losses than you would in a harvestore silo. I did some research

The newer Harvestore ones by CST Industries have better technology

The newer ones however have better technology and you wouldn't have to work as hard as on the older ones.

That's odd, we're still pulling almost 2 year old silage out of one of our harvestores.

+Just_guy_ stuff Up in Ontario we use to call them the big blue Mortgages, cause they were so expensive

Yeah they did do better in cold climate but there are 1 maybe 2 guys that still run them as harvestores but the rest are converted and you can go anywhere without seeing them

+Andy Hass Because with all their flaws, if you treat them right they're a lot less dangerous than silos.

How Farms Work how are they less dangerous? back up the claims u make... the concrete silos we had didnt require any special treatment... harvestors seam like a high maintenance girl... do they preserve the feed better??? i dont believe so. cheaper to build?

Less dangerous as you are less apt to fall inside or out while changing silo doors, harvestores really only need to be climbed when you're filling them, and they're pretty low maintenance, just expensive to have work done to them due to their design. You don't have to climb inside to level the top of the silage. Bottom line is that you don't have to unsafely climb in a harvestore as often like you would a concrete silo. Even when work is being done on the unloader of a harvestore, most times all it takes is jacking the entire unloader out of the harvestore rather than enter it. Less spoilage because you're using an in first out first method rather than in first out first method like with a concrete silo. They're sealed to further reduce spoilage unlike concrete silos which always have the top layer exposed and rely on the silage exposed to the air to keep the rest underneath from spoiling which even then isn't guaranteed that it won't spoil. Since harvestores use the FIFO method, you can go lengths of time without feeding without developing a hard packed layer inside the harvestore like you would a concrete silo. Top unloading silos have the advantage of unloading faster though, which I like. We've easily had 20x the problems with the concrete silos than the harvestores but like I said, the harvestores just cost more to have work done to.

How Farms Work wrong. educate yourself on all of the concrete silo options... they make just as many sealed ones as non sealed. we had 3 sealee concrete with bottom unloaders on our farm. u dont have to buy a steel harvestor to get a sealed silo... so again your arguement of harvestors being more safe doesnt hold up. i would say they r less safe... never seen a concrete silo crumple like a pop can... or fall over in a 50mph wind... saw harvestors do both growing up.

How Farms Work Why dont you bag silage instead of blowing it up a silo or harvestore?

True on the older ones. The newer ones not as a problem. I looked at some research