miniature silo-opinions needed

[RBManufacturing]

Hi Guys,
I am working on a new product, but really need opinions from
any and all who might use such a product. I have made a small galvanized steel feed silo for horse / livestock owners use. It holds 6- 50 pound bags of feed, has a hinged, lockable lid, a slide gate valve, stands about 5 ft. tall. A 5 gallon bucket will fit under it. It has steel angle iron legs, and is assembled with aluminum rivets, and stainless steel bolts. It is rodent proof,
bug proof, weatherproof, and horseproof. I plan on pricing it around $179.95 to $190.00. Do any of you horse owners think there is a market for such a thing??? I will post a picure if there is much interest. Working on a patent first. Thing weighs less than 60 pounds. Brenda, my business partner owns a horse, and came up with the idea. Any comments truly appreciated. Thanks, Rick

 

[MossRoad]

You might be able to market it to people with corn or pellet burning stoves, as well.

 

[cowboydoc]

It wouldn't help me but some other people with smaller herds I would think it would. If you made different sizes you may be able to better market it as well. Now another thing to think about is molding. The traditional bins you can only keep sweet feed, most horse feeds, for a couple months before it starts to mold. If you could figure out some way to ****** this process you would do well with it. Otherwise I think you're going to problems with mold and mad customers. You may even open yourself up to some lawsuits as mold to horses, esp. corn, will cause colica and death in horses.

 

[RBManufacturing]

Hi cowboydoc,
What do they do about mold on large silos? Brenda boards her horses at a local ranch, along with 45 other peoples horses. Most of them use plastic garbage cans to store their feed. Some even leave it on the barn floor (concrete) in bags. Would mold be a problem with what they are doing now also?
We plan on other sizes if this one sells. In Brendas particular use, she says the feed will last only about a month, so mold should not be a problem with her horses. I could put a small fan on the silo to circulate air, but the idea is to make this thing for use out in the pasture, maybe bolted to a fence post,
or the side of the barn, etc. Electric power may not be available. Thanks for the input. It gives me something to look into before i spend alot on a non-working product. Rick

 

[GaryM]

How about a small fan powered by a couple of NiCad cells and charged by a solar cell? Or charged by a small wind turbine?

 

[MikePA]

Rick, we currently use 2 Rubbermaid trash cans, the ones with the domed lids that snap in to place. These hold the 2 different feeds we use, Sweet 10 and Senior. Each container holds three, fifty pound bags of feed plus a scoop. These containers sit against one wall in our tack room.

To fill them, I take the lid off the can, dump the remaining feed into the lid, dump 3 bags of feed in the can followed by the feed I poured in the lid. This keeps from having a 'permanent' layer of feed in the bottom of each can. If we buy feed before the cans need filled, the bags sit up off the concrete floor either on the bags of wood chips or on two, short 2 x 6s so they don't absorb moisture from the concrete.

When we feed the horses, we get a full scoop of feed in each hand and dump them through the small square opening in the stall bars into the feed tray in each stall. Scoop goes back in the can, lid snaps on and I'm done.

Cost for the cans, about $40. The ones we have now are over 10 years old and, being made of plastic, they'll last almost forever. They are rodent proof, bug proof, weatherproof, and horseproof. Perhaps not to the extent your mini-silo is, but, given their location in the tack room, sufficiently so.

Some questions I would ponder before purchasing a mini-silo;

1. One mini-silo costs about 5 times my current solution.
2. I would need two of them for the 2 feeds we use.
3. Filling them would mean lifting the 50 lb bags over 5 feet in the air versus 3 feet.
4. If they'd sit outside this would pose a problem in the winter because sweet feed doesn't flow at all when it's cold. The senior feed would probably be OK, but not the sweet feed. Have you tested almost frozen sweet feed to see if it flows through the slide gate?
5. The fact that a 5 gallon bucket fits underneath it would offer no value to me.

Hmm.

 

[cowboydoc]

You don't have the mold problem with plastic, paper, etc. because it doesn't sweat and get hot like the steel does with the feed. They also make small bins like you are talking about now.

If you are only talking about smaller amounts as well alot of people do exactly like Mike does.

I don't know for sure. I know I wouldn't buy one, too small as I go through 250lbs. of feed a day just for the horses, but it may sell for smaller users. I do know for sure that mold issue will be a problem if they keep the feed for a couple months.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I'd suggest you go to a search engine and do some reading up on Disclosure Statements with the Patent Office.
Last I knew filing a Disclosure Statement cost $35-, and it gives you a lot more protection than a patent does, particularly at your stage of the game.
One thing you can rely on, if you make a good product, the Chinese will have a knockoff in the chain feed stores within 6 months for less money than yours.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

We use 55 gallon plastic drums that we get for a $1 each at the food processing plants. Each drum holds around 320lbs of feed and is about 4 feet tall. Plus if we need to move it, it is only a few pounds. We use a 4 quart scoop to scoop out of the barrels when they are full and when they get down a foot we scoop 5 gallon buckets in them. The price you are looking at is unreasonable for us since we go thru too much feed and would need a couple dozen of those bins. We have 2-3 barrels in each of our pens and have 12 pens so we don't run out every week.

As for any problems with storing in plastic drums, we have never had any. Mice do not get in to them, they stay dry and we have never had a problem with feed molding in them. The barrels look like new and have worked perfectly since March of 1997. I don't know how much of a market you will find for it with that price because it is basicly a decked out garbage can that sounds like you will need a platform to dump the feed into it. Either way, best of luck to you. Take care.

 

[gws]

My big question is how do you fill it. No one is going to want climb up carring 50lb bags. While it sound like a nice idea and the price is very nice. Around here people use old freezers, plastic bucks, 55gal drums to store grain.

 

[cowboydoc]

It's the steel that causes the probelms Robert. You won't have a problem storing in plastic.

 

[RichZ]

We use galvinized metal garbage cans to store our feed. They're rodent proof, and rodents can't chew their way into them.

In addition to the other problems mentioned, it seems to me that rodents might have an easy time getting into a mini-silo.

 

[Wingnut]

Rick,
I'd have the opposite problem from the other folks that have responded. Our 6 minis go through only 100 pounds of feed in 6 to 8 weeks. I get the absolute minimum I can get mixed and then monitor quite closely when it's getting down to make sure it's still as fresh as possible. Your unit would be way too big for us.
Like the other, I find a lot of success in using plastic ... we use a 25 gallon plastic tub with a tight fitting lid ... holds 50 lbs perfectly ... the other 50 pound bag sits (sacked) in a plastic garbage can until needed.
Now, if you could get ME 55 gal plastic barrels for $2 .... well ... I'd have to dig in my pockets then!

pete

 

[JimMc]

Just some advice you may want to ignore:

Don't ignore the freight issue. It's one of the biggest problems we face as a manufacturer and one of the largest expenses we all pay as consumers. In fact, if you remove freight expenses, most products consumers use don't really cost all that much. Nothing more frustrating than a good product, eager customers, and no way to get it to them cost effectively.

Look for freight to move from $1.40 per loaded mile to $3.00 in the next 3 years.

Figure out before you start manufacturing how many will fit on a truck and average mileage to customer base. That will give you an idea of the true cost to the consumer.

 

[RBManufacturing]

Hi Guys,
Thanks to all for the comments!!! I truly appreciate it. Rick

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

How about something about the size of a 55 gallon drum that would stand on short legs (just tall enough to slide a small bucket underneath). A dump in the bottom would allow feed/grain to be put into a short bucket.

Or better yet, an adaptor for a 55 gallon drum that would mount to a hole cut into the bottom for a dump. Again, short legs for sliding a small bucket under. That would require only lifting the bag an additional foot for loading. Because the grain was being removed from the bottom, feed would always be rotated and fresh (no need to completely empty the drum before refilling).

We've got the same problem Pete does. Smaller critters don't eat that much, and nobody really makes anything cool for them. So, rubbermaid and the plastic barrel people get all the business.

Steve

 

[vlg888]

I'm looking to buy a mini bulk feeder that holds around 1 ton, we have 40 horses and need something a little bigger than you described. Do you have anything like that or the plans for that that I can build myself?