I built these in the 70's. I built the White Star brand silo. We did not have the double hoist system like these guys do, we had a single hoist run by a gas engine. The forman ran the rope, I was the catcher. My forman could get the staves up to 70 mph coming up the silo and he could unhook them before they got to the top. The staves would free fly the last 6 to 8 foot and I would catch the stave and put it in place. The rope would be on the way down before I would get the stave. Each stave weighed 72 lbs. just like these and I believe there were 72 staves in one round. We could place one round in 4 1/2 minutes. Door frame weighed 150 lbs. and my forman could lift it with one arm. I had to bear hug and hope I did not lose my nuts. Didn't get paid by the hour we got paid by the unit. Also got paid flat rate for an outside ladder, roofs which were a bitch to put on when the wind was blowing. Worked sunup to sundown and the foreman pushed hard. Company bought us breakfast and dinner. Lot of time on the road and company paid our lodging. Definitely hard work. Actually made more money than a lot of other jobs. Plastering the inside would make a man out of anyone. Also at the end we would have to ride a bolsan chair down the outside and swing around to tighten the rings. Each chair was on its own block and tackle and you pulled yourself up and down as needed. Used a claw hammer to hold onto the rings. so help me if you ever did this for a living it would make you appreciate any other job you might get.
My summer job was to carry the staves from where the truck dropped it off to the building site (about 100 yards). Job ended when the foreman fell after racing down the silo at the end of the day.
We had a 20 by 60 stave silo put up. The guy tightening the bands, used pole climbing spikes on his feet to catch the rings, and had a claw hammer in one hand to support him, while wrenching with the other. No safety ropes. I think your method was much safer.
My father work for a company Called Farm Service that was in Kalamazoo, MI and they built Silos like you did. They pulled them up with a gas engine set up. They were pretty sate of the art s they had a plant and poured their own staves. I have a bunch of pics of the guys and trucks all loaded up with staves. I think they shut down in the mid 60's as steel silos were becoming more popular. Crazy how this popped up on you tube, as I have never done a search or anything online that I can remember for Silos. Very cool to see, and thanks for telling how it was for you doing this work. I also remember it being said there were few jobs you could do that was harder work than building silo's.
Wow, you guys were fast! I never timed a round but it seemed to take about 10 minutes. They also used just one hoist, seems kind of dumb compared to two. We were paid by the hour, just above minimum wage, but worked sunup/sundown six days a week so overtime kicked in. And we stayed in the worst motels/hotels imaginable -- found out later my foreman got a per diem every Monday when we set out, it was based on two squares a day at a typical small town diner, plus a room for every two guys at a place like Holiday Inn. My foreman would cram four of us into a room with one bed and pocket the difference. He would also start out every working day by digging a hole in the silo floor and taking a dump. I spent about half my summer on the Gunite crew, shoveling sand into a hopper and scrambling up and down the hoops tightening the nut. We did not have a Bosun's chair. You just had to hang on. When I started they told me that crews would lose one or two rookies at the start of every season because they'd literally forget to hold on. Or, the guy loading staves on the ground would forget to step back and look up when to guy upstairs would start winching.
I worked grain industry all my life, we never had this type of silo. I always wondered how they were built. Great video, you educated pry alot of people including me. So thanks
Mr Shirtless Hard Hat is over here knocking em out as fast as they come up... meanwhile baseball cap newbie seems to struggle with every single one of the panels that come up. Not that he isn't working just as hard, but it's easy to see who's done it for a while and who's learning the trade. I think it just takes a while to figure it out the little tricks to the trade.
Happy to see one being built even if it’s a relocation. Lots of demolition videos of people taking chances with an excavator. Unless they are unstable it seems a shame to demolish these structures.
Built mostly 20x60’s in the summer of 1971. 2 guys on the ground, and2 guys inside building. The most fun part was going down the side on a bosons chair to tighten the nuts on the bands. Farmer was supposed to feed us lunch. The better the food, the better the silo.
I worked for Pearson (Wisconsin) in the late 70s, putting up silos. Very hard work. What this doesn’t show are they guys crawling up the silo and hand-tightening all the hoops. Dangerous, too, at least once a month a stave would slip the tongs and bash someone below. Surprisingly, they hit legs more often than heads.
It was. All but the last piece could be installed from the platform inside the silo, but some newbie always got the job of fastening the last piece from the outside. Something you don’t want to do with a hangover.
Thanks for the vid we don't have silo's in my area a feed lot neighbor has 6 Harvestore's but they have only been used for barley storage for the past 30 years. I thought that these silo's were formed and poured concrete so this was nice to learn how they are built. Landmark Cattle has a video of unloading silage from a silo so now I 'have a better understanding of the whole process. Great video
Can you give me a heads up. I been looking for silo scaffolding but every online search just returns regular scaffold, when I'm looking for the scaffold as used in this video that is erected inside the silo.
Round Prairie Dairy Yes they still make stave silos. This one is a Ribstone brand silo. Each stave or block has a rib on the side for strength. Rochester silos are also still made, they have a flat stave. Most of the other companies including Madison (the largest silo company at one time) are out of business.
Judging from the looks of the inside of the staves they look to be used staves. Not common but they sometimes get taken down and moved. I built my above ground swimming pool out of silo staves, way better than factory metal frames.
This is a rebuild. I built new ribstone silos which is what this is and we grouted all the outside joints. They wanted here they are putting all the hoops on as they gp
I helped my uncle take one down. We just dropped the blocks into the feed left in the bottom of the hole. Than he hired a crew like these guys to put it back up.
I didn't know that they built them anymore. In my area they are obsolete. I don't know how you could even get the materials to build one. Thanks for the video. You should save it for posteriorty. Never going to see this again.
CavemanCBB I know of several built and rebuilt in the last few years. Many farms have switched to bunkers and piles as they've gotten larger, but there's still a lot of silos used in Wisconsin. If you want to know more, become a member of "silo junkies" on Facebook. Thanks.
@@stevenbatterman7735 Silo Junkies rules! Many great folks on that page. I miss farming. Allot of mennonites and amish here buying useable old silos and relocating them. I noticed Mennonites love Ribstone silos.
I watched these italian guys build one of our silos.(80 ft) they were throwing these blocks around like legos..lol I tried to man handle one. I was 12 yr old at the time. Needless to say I stuck to milking cows.
They also had factory in Urbana, Ohio. We put a 20x70 in 60's amazing to see in person. Every once in while a stave would come loose going up and it dropped really fast!
I've seen lots of videos of these silos being destroyed. Why don't more people dismantle them and move them. Amish farmers around here do it all the time. If you are good with a torch it's a simpla matter to loosen the bands and take them apart.
Sure - as Jerry stated - the old Harvestore plant is still going on Harvestore Drive off Highway 23 & Interstate 88 in DeKalb, Illinois - they've got a silo set up in their 'front' yard on display......
The staves look the same, Osakis probably purchased the staves maybe? I know the guy that owned Osakis silo, I'll have to ask him the next time I see him.
I built these in the 70's. I built the White Star brand silo. We did not have the double hoist system like these guys do, we had a single hoist run by a gas engine. The forman ran the rope, I was the catcher. My forman could get the staves up to 70 mph coming up the silo and he could unhook them before they got to the top. The staves would free fly the last 6 to 8 foot and I would catch the stave and put it in place. The rope would be on the way down before I would get the stave. Each stave weighed 72 lbs. just like these and I believe there were 72 staves in one round. We could place one round in 4 1/2 minutes. Door frame weighed 150 lbs. and my forman could lift it with one arm. I had to bear hug and hope I did not lose my nuts. Didn't get paid by the hour we got paid by the unit. Also got paid flat rate for an outside ladder, roofs which were a bitch to put on when the wind was blowing. Worked sunup to sundown and the foreman pushed hard. Company bought us breakfast and dinner. Lot of time on the road and company paid our lodging. Definitely hard work. Actually made more money than a lot of other jobs. Plastering the inside would make a man out of anyone. Also at the end we would have to ride a bolsan chair down the outside and swing around to tighten the rings. Each chair was on its own block and tackle and you pulled yourself up and down as needed. Used a claw hammer to hold onto the rings. so help me if you ever did this for a living it would make you appreciate any other job you might get.
My summer job was to carry the staves from where the truck dropped it off to the building site (about 100 yards). Job ended when the foreman fell after racing down the silo at the end of the day.
😎 awesome
We had a 20 by 60 stave silo put up. The guy tightening the bands, used pole climbing spikes on his feet to catch the rings, and had a claw hammer in one hand to support him, while wrenching with the other. No safety ropes. I think your method was much safer.
My father work for a company Called Farm Service that was in Kalamazoo, MI and they built Silos like you did. They pulled them up with a gas engine set up. They were pretty sate of the art s they had a plant and poured their own staves. I have a bunch of pics of the guys and trucks all loaded up with staves. I think they shut down in the mid 60's as steel silos were becoming more popular.
Crazy how this popped up on you tube, as I have never done a search or anything online that I can remember for Silos.
Very cool to see, and thanks for telling how it was for you doing this work. I also remember it being said there were few jobs you could do that was harder work than building silo's.
Wow, you guys were fast! I never timed a round but it seemed to take about 10 minutes. They also used just one hoist, seems kind of dumb compared to two. We were paid by the hour, just above minimum wage, but worked sunup/sundown six days a week so overtime kicked in. And we stayed in the worst motels/hotels imaginable -- found out later my foreman got a per diem every Monday when we set out, it was based on two squares a day at a typical small town diner, plus a room for every two guys at a place like Holiday Inn. My foreman would cram four of us into a room with one bed and pocket the difference. He would also start out every working day by digging a hole in the silo floor and taking a dump. I spent about half my summer on the Gunite crew, shoveling sand into a hopper and scrambling up and down the hoops tightening the nut. We did not have a Bosun's chair. You just had to hang on. When I started they told me that crews would lose one or two rookies at the start of every season because they'd literally forget to hold on. Or, the guy loading staves on the ground would forget to step back and look up when to guy upstairs would start winching.
I worked grain industry all my life, we never had this type of silo. I always wondered how they were built. Great video, you educated pry alot of people including me. So thanks
Except they were slower than a couple of grandmas
I would much rather see silos being built than knocked down. I prefer silos to silage piles, bunkers or bags.
Mr Shirtless Hard Hat is over here knocking em out as fast as they come up... meanwhile baseball cap newbie seems to struggle with every single one of the panels that come up. Not that he isn't working just as hard, but it's easy to see who's done it for a while and who's learning the trade. I think it just takes a while to figure it out the little tricks to the trade.
They were any slower the buzzards would be circling
Happy to see one being built even if it’s a relocation. Lots of demolition videos of people taking chances with an excavator. Unless they are unstable it seems a shame to demolish these structures.
My first time ever seeing one go up. I have seen more than I care to being torn down. Thanks for posting.
Built mostly 20x60’s in the summer of 1971. 2 guys on the ground, and2 guys inside building. The most fun part was going down the side on a bosons chair to tighten the nuts on the bands. Farmer was supposed to feed us lunch. The better the food, the better the silo.
I grew up working on a dairy farm and never knew how those silos were built!
I worked for Pearson (Wisconsin) in the late 70s, putting up silos. Very hard work. What this doesn’t show are they guys crawling up the silo and hand-tightening all the hoops. Dangerous, too, at least once a month a stave would slip the tongs and bash someone below. Surprisingly, they hit legs more often than heads.
We had seat boards and started at the top and worked our way down to tighten all the lugs. Then you only gotta deal with the rope and tackle once.
Very cool to watch. How do they put the roof on it. I'll bet that is pretty sketchy.
It was. All but the last piece could be installed from the platform inside the silo, but some newbie always got the job of fastening the last piece from the outside. Something you don’t want to do with a hangover.
Thanks for the vid we don't have silo's in my area a feed lot neighbor has 6 Harvestore's but they have only been used for barley storage for the past 30 years. I thought that these silo's were formed and poured concrete so this was nice to learn how they are built. Landmark Cattle has a video of unloading silage from a silo so now I 'have a better understanding of the whole process. Great video
AndersonCattleCo. There's over 1,900 staves in this silo each weighing about 72 lbs each.
Can you give me a heads up. I been looking for silo scaffolding but every online search just returns regular scaffold, when I'm looking for the scaffold as used in this video that is erected inside the silo.
Silos are fun! Thanks!
Surprised they still make stave silos? What was the cost on this one?
Round Prairie Dairy Yes they still make stave silos. This one is a Ribstone brand silo. Each stave or block has a rib on the side for strength. Rochester silos are also still made, they have a flat stave. Most of the other companies including Madison (the largest silo company at one time) are out of business.
@@stevenbatterman7735 where are you located I would like to find a demuth silo scaffold
Judging from the looks of the inside of the staves they look to be used staves. Not common but they sometimes get taken down and moved. I built my above ground swimming pool out of silo staves, way better than factory metal frames.
This is a rebuild. I built new ribstone silos which is what this is and we grouted all the outside joints. They wanted here they are putting all the hoops on as they gp
I helped my uncle take one down. We just dropped the blocks into the feed left in the bottom of the hole. Than he hired a crew like these guys to put it back up.
I didn't know that they built them anymore. In my area they are obsolete. I don't know how you could even get the materials to build one. Thanks for the video. You should save it for posteriorty. Never going to see this again.
CavemanCBB I know of several built and rebuilt in the last few years. Many farms have switched to bunkers and piles as they've gotten larger, but there's still a lot of silos used in Wisconsin. If you want to know more, become a member of "silo junkies" on Facebook. Thanks.
@@stevenbatterman7735 Silo Junkies rules! Many great folks on that page. I miss farming. Allot of mennonites and amish here buying useable old silos and relocating them. I noticed Mennonites love Ribstone silos.
@@stevenbatterman7735 Can't find that group.
I watched these italian guys build one of our silos.(80 ft) they were throwing these blocks around like legos..lol I tried to man handle one. I was 12 yr old at the time. Needless to say I stuck to milking cows.
How do you check for plum?
Love it, keep them coming...........
Looks like a Ribstone brand silo from Troy, Pa. Now out of business but they put up a lot of them in NE Penna.
They also had factory in Urbana, Ohio. We put a 20x70 in 60's amazing to see in person. Every once in while a stave would come loose going up and it dropped really fast!
Damn Cool. Always wondered how that was done. (Anyone have any idea what something like this might cost?)
I have a18 by 70 ribstone built in 1977 still in great condition has been shotcreted
The older man out working the kid .
Now what they gotta do is build the old stone and mortor silos, or the big cement blocked silos, thatd be a video.
The old man is kicking Jrs. Butt!!
I think he has done it before (lol), he makes it look effortless
The “old man” is not necessarily stronger than the young guy, he just knows how to handle materials more efficiently.
What if they demolished it soon after.
I've seen lots of videos of these silos being destroyed. Why don't more people dismantle them and move them. Amish farmers around here do it all the time. If you are good with a torch it's a simpla matter to loosen the bands and take them apart.
The inside of the panels look like they could be used. I don't know. The outside looks new.
The other video,"time lapse," calls it a rebuild.
Lawrence Withrow This silo was a used silo. It was originally built in 2008 but the farm that originally built it sold their cows.
Doing it the same way we did 55 years ago.
What the price of one
Why you build a concrete Silo instead of a Blue Harvest silo?
JJ our neighbor put up two brand new ones last year they are still made. The are made by cst Industries.
JJ I never knew concrete Silo staves one were still being made I knew straight up concrete ones were but not silo staves.
Sure - as Jerry stated - the old Harvestore plant is still going on Harvestore Drive off Highway 23 & Interstate 88 in DeKalb, Illinois - they've got a silo set up in their 'front' yard on display......
Price and you can fix an unloader. The blues company has to come in to fix. Big bucks for that
Know as blue tombstones around here
wha the name oft he hoist that are you using?
What are they standing on ?
Problem another silo
the winching takes much too long. They could send up 3 or 4 Tyles at once, i guess.
You don't happen to be related to Bob or Bruce or Boyd batterman of Lincoln Nebraska do you?
You should edit the sound track.
How long does this take?
TOO LONG !!
Alex Donnett Once the footing was poured, it took five days to erect.
First time i saw how is build!
Is that an Osakis silo?
The staves look the same, Osakis probably purchased the staves maybe?
I know the guy that owned Osakis silo, I'll have to ask him the next time I see him.
2:08 Elvis is having a bit of a struggle.
You funny guy!! Yes, he seems to have an Elvis stance!
No safety harnesses?
Not where I worked.
Yeah these guys would be fired and the company would be sued if osha was around I see zero safety awareness from these gentleman
Safety gear for man in cap
Built fickes style for a few years. Loved that job don't miss the low pay though lol
These are called stave silos
Why does the guy wear a bunk cap, is it going to save his life if he falls on his head?