How ACO Silos Were Made

[@pedalingthru2719]

5 generations of dairy farmers later and it still stands on our fam and is used every year

[@stevedrinkard2040]

When men and work were 100% quality

[@oldtimeway1]

Good for you. Glad to see some people still using their silos.

[@darrowlinn7407]

I always have been fascinated by silos and smoke stacks. The people that built them were true craftsman and hard workers.

[@George-vf7ss]

@insomanic That guy was absolutely epic....

[@whiskeybuilder6335]

@insomanicI am a union Carpenter that has built scaffolding for 24 years. Fred is huge celebrity in my world.

[@lcvt8023]

@insomanic right on! Fred's fun to watch work.

[@ky.gambler5281]

I worked for a company named Long Silo back in the 1960's. We poured concrete staves, tongue an groove about 16×32 inches, poured in long trays with dividers, we broke the trays apart, stacked the staves on pallets, then cleaned the trays with pieces of old car springs, cut up and sharpen as a knife on the end, Hell my wrist swelled up from scrapping and beating the concrete off. Another crew went out and erected them with steel straps around the center of every stave end on end. They covered several states around Ky I think... bad times for $42.00 week pay, of course gas was about .16cents a gallon, cigarettes. 25cents a pack.

[@EarlHanson]

You did a great job presenting the ACO silos. I've been around quite a few silos myself and the history in this phase of agriculture is very interesting. Good thing you had a supply of old photos to use.

[@meb1233]

I worked building brick chimneys with my dad growing up. I haven't done any brick work in a long time because I've spent the last twenty years doing stonework of every kind here in New Hampshire USA. I even had the opportunity to work with a granite carver out of Vermont one winter. I truly love the old brick work and wish I had done more along the way. It's pretty cool checking out work from around the world and seeing what the masters of the masonry trade have done and still do. Thanks for sharing.

[@neilwilliams2409]

Very interesting.and informative. Built with pride in those days.

[@benjaminchance3311]

very pleasant and i feel like i learned just enough about silos for somebody who is not a farmer.

[@tihspidtherekciltilc5469]

A few summers ago I painted a house built in the early 1700s of historical significance that had two of these silos adjoining a huge barn in between them. One silo was sectioned into two sections with the bottom being a cistern. Newfields NH

[@theonlybuzz1969]

To this day the Spanish and the Greek people who have used this type of hollow brick for its insulating features. I’m sure that they are used all over the world but these are the places that I have seen them, not in Silos per say I really enjoyed the video that you have made, it was really interesting. Many thanks and all the best for the future..

[@burntsider8457]

Well done documentary.

[@krrrruptidsoless]

30 ft silo raised in 4 days means the cure time for the bottom layer was almost instantaneous. Being 7.5ft lifts per day. Nowadays I think masons only do 4 ft lifts per day to allow for drying and curing. Was the masonry cement different back then? Nicely informative video dude.

[@Redplanetlover]

I'm from Alberta and one of my wife's uncles used his job as a silo worker who assisted in building new wooden silos to avoid conscription in WWII. His brother was a railroad labourer and used that job too to escape conscription. The third brother (my eventual father in law) couldn't dodge conscription but mysteriously suffered a broken leg the night before he was due to ship out. Curious eh? By the way, they were ethnically 100% German so that may have had an impact. Some trades were exempt from conscription and those were two of them.

[@elainefaubert332]

I am a descendent from this Ochs Family. A.C.Ochs had 12 living sibling’s. His Brother Louis Robert Ochs was my grandfather. A C Ochs Founded the A.C. Ochs Brick company. Louis Robert Ochs died at the age of 53, 54. Leaving a wife and nine children behind. My dad was born in 1915 and his dad died when he was 14. Sure would like to know more of my relatives from Anton Ochs and Wilberga Ochs. Who are the parents of A.C.Ochs and Louis R. Ochs. Thanks for posting.🥰👍🍉🐥🥳

[@thomasfx3190]

I had no idea how that was done, great video!

[@shanekoontz6449]

If you ever get bored come here to Fairfield is where loudens is located there is a working barn all originally equipped with all louden stuff there a quite a few barns built by their plans and also some brick round barns still in good shape

[@kevink552]

There's a really neat old brick silo that's doing the slow fall on the outskirts of Castle Rock Colorado near where I live, wishing I had the money to rescue it and make it part of my house. I love brick silo's as well but have seen a few wood ones that were amazing as well.

[@tom7601]

I used to live in Parker (The Pinery). Where is the silo located?

[@stevegabbert9626]

I'm guessing the cow on the finial was a weather vane that was used for target practice. ;)

[@dolphincliffs8864]

Shooting pigeons.

[@hugolafhugolaf]

Never thought I'd be interested in this! But I was!

[@firstnamelastname7476]

TY! Well presented and detailed. I highly recommend the Fred Dibnah youtube vids to those needing more brick stories (i assume MB and most here will have seen them already)

[@brianjohnson3782]

I own a remodeling company. Not sure but I think we may have cut out some of these bricks about 5 years ago to install a patio door where two double hung windows were. They were hollow, looked like they provided good insulation as I don’t believe there was any insulation in the walls except provided by the dead air space. I’ll have to search my photos. Great video. Oh, it’s a older farm house near Gresham Wisconsin.

[@justforever96]

That doesn't necessarily make them ACO bricks. Other companies copied him later. This is mostly about how he was the first, with both hollow bricks (in that region) and to create pre-fab brick shapes meant for specific types of structure, instead of your standard rectangular bricks.

[@justforever96]

Never heard of these, we don't have these in Vermont. Just old wooden silos (a few still standing) and modern steel. And some concrete slab type ones. I am not a farmer, but I find it more and more fascinating as I get older, along with anything to do with engineering or machinery.

[@TheOutlaw_JoseyWales]

4 days is incredibly efficient... even by today's standards with modern day equipment

[@stevenpalmore4299]

We have big ACO barn in northern Virginia ...they turned into a shopping mall and still shines like it was new

[@woofgbruk5947]

That ACO barn would make a great house conversion!

[@dbdouglas]

There are YT video's of people that made houses out of steel grain bins. A few sweet ones!

[@waveranger4974]

Well done. Interesting and enjoyable.

[@krisdrinkwine6045]

Impressive history. Thank you. 👍

[@sigistrele5835]

I speak German as my mother tongue. It's always amazing how Americans pronounce German words and names. Greetings from Austria

[@leorbuis9024]

Nice video, I noticed one picture showed cables used for reinforcing, I would be curious to know how these actually worked. Were they tensioned cables? If so how did they tension them? Thanks!

[@PaddleDogC5]

Doubt they were in tension. Probably just use cable clamps. No way to tension them.

[@ffjsb]

@@PaddleDogC5 Sure there is. A clamping lever would be an easy way to do it. Anchor one end, then a lever that would clamp to the other end to provide tension, then clamp the cable while under tension.

[@PaddleDogC5]

@@ffjsb it's not like it's on the outside it's build in the bed joint if the bricks. So you tighten it on what?

[@ffjsb]

I see what you're talking about, I don't think those are cables, they're rebar. Cables would be useless in the mortar joint.

[@PaddleDogC5]

@@ffjsb 3:15 it says cables in the billing discussion. Rebar would take to long to bend also. Looped cable in mortar joint laid in would still prevent inward pressure from blowing the masonry out from inward pressures. Rebar was square back then too not round.

[@frederickwise5238]

Fascinating. Saw this in the menu several days ago. Im glad I too the time today. Next, How did they get sileage into it.???

[@SlaveToMyStomach]

I wondered about that myself as I know nothing about farming or farms. One photo did show a show a series of doors one above the other that, I assume, were used to load in the mileage. Must have been a larger one at the bottom to take it out. Maybe this is common knowledge in farming country but it's interesting to me, Destin, of KZbin channel Smarter Every Day did a video about how modern silos are built. Once the slab is poured the roof is effected then jacked up and a section of wall built underneath the roof. That is jacked up and another section of wall built. The process continues with the crew always working at ground level.

[@frederickwise5238]

@@SlaveToMyStomach I saw the same but didnt see any structure up top (pulley/scaffold for a block and fall. Seemed no wy to get stuff up there.. ????? (no one has offered a solution yet) After answering you, I went to google "how to" they offered 3 videos - it is chopped and blown up into. Whether that was the way back in the day still a question.???

[@4320Phil]

Silo blower . Back then they used a ensilage cutter that chopped or cut the forage into short length and also blew it to the top with a long pipe powered by a stationary engine or by tractor power.

[@ulie1960]

The advertising in the newspaper at 1:29 is not in German, it is in Danish.

[@jenniferwhitewolf3784]

Lots of Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, and Finns in Minnesota too, as well as the Germans..

[@ky.gambler5281]

@@jenniferwhitewolf3784 don't forget AOC whom married her brother! Lol I guess all those people love the cold temps. Seriously I don't understand how the hot climate immigrants live in the coldest places?

[@steamgent4592]

Always liked the clay brick silos and the huge Mail Pouch and other Advertising. Alot of which was chewing tobacco, snuff, cigarettes, cigars, Alcohol, and Coal. When I get my barns skin replaced with all new wood I've been considering several of those adds and since I'm not being paid nobody can say I can't advertise for Mail Pouch, Chesterfield, or Camel, Phillies Cigars, Jamison, or Blue Coal or Reading Anthracite!! It will be my time machine for me to a better time each time I look @ my barn......

[@typhoon5445]

Very intresting thankyou 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@csrb338]

Well done sir Some days I end down a rabbit hole and question my life’s decisions

[@nilo70]

Thank you for making this

[@MrRickoscar]

Nice , I enjoyed this Video.

[@LarsonFamilyFarm-LLC]

Neat...wish i had one on my land.

[@joasveenstra2495]

Never knew i want to know this, but damn this is interresting i wish i knew this before.

[@wpowerwagon]

Interesting and thanks again for your videos

[@clintdaniel9260]

great video love silos mom calls them silver tops

[@samuelelder9434]

I learned today that Im interested in how silos are made

[@stevemcneil1480]

Great post, thanks.

[@petercrowl9467]

A.O. Smith Harvestore was the silo of my youth. I'm told that silo's aren't much used any longer with the advent of the round bale.

[@corerlt]

A bunker style silage pile is superior in most ways. Upright silos are slow to fill. Then the feed is cold when fed to the cows.

[@randymclean9121]

@@corerlt I worked on "poured in place" upright silo crews for 5 summers. Most of those I worked on have been taken down. To much energy needed to fill and empty. I red somewhere that these were called bankruptcy tubes. Looking at a 30 foot diameter X 100 foot high from the top was a real experience.

[@justforever96]

Not silos as such, but I do see storage tanks, I believe some still store sileage in them. Round bales are more for hay, or that was my impression. I see sileage stored in concrete bunkers, or sometimes in large flat piles covered in plastic sheeting, with many old tires used to weight the sheeting down (to the point I suspect compression is some important factor in good sileage).

[@pigtrapper1329]

@@justforever96 people use round bales around here for silage, but you have to wrap them in white plastic in rows to seal them off. Silage has more protein than dried hay.

[@Ranshazzam]

I poured concrete for silos. Seeing how this was done so long ago if Fascinating

[@danielalamo2075]

Dairymen must have made really good money back then. Not to mention the size of the dairies were really small.

[@lcvt8023]

great stuff! thank you!

[@isabellefaguy7351]

Very interesting video!

[@chrismarlow7148]

ACO silos are all over my area, of course I live one county over from Brown cty where Springfield is (Redwood cty).

[@davidkimmel4216]

Thanks

[@u.s.militia7682]

I’ve seen these blocks and silos before in Western Kentucky. I don’t know if they’re ACO blocks though. A lot of these silos still stand especially in Christian and Trigg County Kentucky.

[@JP-uk9uc]

The craftsmanship of some brick buildings is impressive and I gotta wonder how such tall buildings can be completely straight and square.

[@PaddleDogC5]

Ask the Greeks.

[@Chr.U.Cas1622]

👍👌👏 Very interesting! Thanks a lot for making teaching explaining recording editing uploading and sharing. Best regards luck and health.

[@donaldmcdaniel1773]

Very interesting!

[@charliepearce8767]

I want one !

[@fetus2280]

We dont have things like this here in Canada ... well not that I have seen in my 50 yrs, there may be some north of this state ? but most are all, well Older ones have Bottom half Brick/Stone/Cinder blocks and top half Metal , or theyre All metal . Smoke stacks not a clue on that . Interesting video mate . Cheers.

[@pitpatify]

The newspaper clipping shown at 1:30 is not German. It is written in a letter style which was popular in Germany, called "Fraktur", but the language is Scandinavian. I would assume Swedish.

[@MNBricks]

Thanks for the info! I didn't know that.

[@brianrajala7671]

Maybe one in Swan River, Hwy 2, east of Grand Rapids. It has been leaning for a few years.

[@perfredrikinsulan5116]

About a minute and a half into the film you state that the advert is is German. That is wrong. The language used is Danish/Norwegian. Could be either as they were written very similar at that time. Otherwise thanks for the film. Very interesting.

[@curtn7076]

I've seen these in Ohio and IL. Lasting beauty and sturdy.

[@yayie2]

@halfasintresting needs to up his brick videos game.

[@JjDay-id7vr]

What held them together. Won't the pressure of the silage push out I wonder can tear them down and rebuild it in new location I think these silos are a real time piece

[@joem1413]

great video

[@shopshop144]

Any sense of the time frame during in which these silos were built, and how many were built? What did the patent cover? I assume a round brick silo is too general. Nice video

[@frederickwise5238]

The date I saw on that one "example of dating in the periods between letters, looked to be 1818,

[@richardcollingridge4712]

@@frederickwise5238 That's actually 1918 if you look closely. A C Ochs himself was not born until 1857.

[@frederickwise5238]

@@richardcollingridge4712 You got better eyes than I and probably a lot younger too, LOL

[@ky.gambler5281]

And I thought it read 19 and 19. Lol

[@r6343]

@@ky.gambler5281 Agreed. 1919. The bottom half of the 9's loops down, around and up, but stops just short of connecting with the top, leaving an old style version of the number 9.

[@randyrobinson8751]

How about doing a history to put on here of Hanson & norling silos.

[@usedcarsokinawa]

Always wondered why the foundation was deeper than ground.

[@ScurvyDog807]

There is an ACO silo by Harwood, ND

[@MNBricks]

I have heard that before, do you know which direction from Harwood? Thanks

[@ScurvyDog807]

@@MNBricks about a half a mile east. I have driven by it many times and not noticed. But after having seen the videos on ACO, i noticed today!

[@andrewlampert6508]

The "German" newspaper ad was in Norwegian.

[@davidm4160]

Interesting. $265 in 1910 adjusted for inflation to 2022 would be about $5000. Good luck building one of those for 5k, probably be more like $35k and even if you had the money you would be hard pressed to find men to build it.

[@randymagnum143]

You could build a hell of a bunk for $35 tho

[@ky.gambler5281]

I'd guess more like 135 thousand today. Greed took over the prices

[@davidm4160]

@@ky.gambler5281 that's more like it

[@randymagnum143]

@@davidm4160 I know energy prices and the cost of mining clay has all but killed the vitrified clay products industry, and try finding a competent mason.

[@stevebell4906]

@@randymagnum143 Bullshit...plenty of skilled craftsmen in all of the Trades...but you can't pay them helper's wages anymore...I have been hearing this BS for my entire life...

[@olekullmann1286]

The so-called "German" advertisement shown in 1:23..1:29 is actually written in Danish :-)

[@MNBricks]

Thanks for the alert, my mistake!

[@dusk2dawn2]

The add shown about 1:22 into the video is in danish, not german.

[@Rickimusic]

Thank you. :)

[@Katya5cat]

We have a very old farmhouse that has its original barn. I would love to put up a silo and turn it into an observatory. Alas, our township doesn't allow any structure higher than 17'. We don't have enough acerage to get around the rules.

[@neverknow69]

most all zoning rules allow for a variance . You just have to apply.

[@randymagnum143]

Free men don't ask permission! Seriously tho....that's some Karen level shit.

[@stevebell4906]

@@randymagnum143 Spoken like a Keyboard Commando in his Mom's basement!...Grow Up!

[@randymagnum143]

@@stevebell4906 take a midol, karen.

[@fourfortyroadrunner6701]

@@neverknow69 "Just." I can tell you have not done much of that. A lot more than "just" when dealing with nazis

[@paulerickson1906]

Think how hard the labor was for the construction of these silos. That wasn't a lot of money for those labors.

[@tihspidtherekciltilc5469]

They didn't have useless bills either like a box that programs you, consumerism and a potato as president.

[@ky.gambler5281]

U tube says you had 1 reply but I click it and there's none..

[@stevebell4906]

@@tihspidtherekciltilc5469 Yet another whiny boy...Crying about The President Biden in a comment about a video about the early 1900s...while hiding behind a bullshit name! Living in a paranoid persecution fantasy!

[@roadtrain5910]

how do you fill or empty the ACO brick silos ? I know how modern silos un load a fill but the brick silos got wandering

[@yanikivanov]

way better then steel

[@craiglinderman5249]

Actually these used in a variety of business too, watched one built at a papermill.....

[@vexation7401]

cool!

[@shanefowler3504]

Don't get rid of them makes a great tiny home or a bed-and-breakfast rental

[@tccragun]

Without an opening near the top, how are these silos filled?

[@MNBricks]

They did have an opening in the top.

[@ericthiel4053]

Some also had a metal tube running up the side and a blower was attached, then silage ( chopped we corn and stalks) could be "blown" up and into the silo. this applied to newer ones though. the old ones had an opening and a "elevator" was used which was basicly a conveyor belt that you could set the height adjustment on, and someone at the top would shovel the fill and make it level. silo work was dangerous but if done right, very effective and necessary for winter storage.

[@weasel884]

Nowadays they do everything to hide pricing and stuff like that and wonder why nobody can afford any of it

[@rickykey1175]

I really enjoyed this video of the solos thank you from bedford va

[@grantsnell6782]

Did the different diameter silos have different curved bricks?

[@MNBricks]

I believe they did.

[@krrrruptidsoless]

I felt like this video was constantly asking me a question by the way these minnesotans talk with their voice going up at the end of a sentence

[@nealkonneker6084]

Are those bullet holes in the weather vane?

[@petercrowl9467]

As one does

[@safetydave720]

Wow.

[@mattstarr8203]

I'm seen them a far as Indiana

[@chrisdiamond9418]

There was a similar silo on the farm I grew up on in Northern Indiana. There were no letters on it so I don't know if it was an ACO. I was wondering if there were other companies building that style of silo.

[@gregsmith1719]

How many did he build and over what years?

[@MNBricks]

Probably several thousand. Mostly over the 1920s to 40s.

[@TheSaskachewan1]

How were they fill and used?

[@MNBricks]

Filled by a hole in the top, used from the bottom.

[@rodgerosborn7124]

Blower fill and forked out thru doors top down. Spent many mornings forking out silage

[@hamroad1956]

My Great, maternal Grandfather, Elmer Spooner, built brick silos, cisterns, and houses all over Western Iowa during the first half of the 20th Century. I have seen many of them, still standing to this day. He was a single, independent contractor; unaffiliated with ACO or anyone else. Clearly ACO's designs were not patented.

[@jeffreyyoung4104]

I would think it was his bricks that were patented. The idea with hollow bricks was a bit of insulation to prevent silage from freezing. How well it worked is debatable, as the bricks could fail if water was able to fill them and freeze.

[@robfinch3277]

How did they fill them?

[@CHRnorton]

Hi, at a farm next to me in Massachusetts, The farmer Rufus Beals had about 8 milking cow. He grew cow corn to fill his silo. In fall we would help him. The corn was cut with a sickle by hand and then loaded on to old farm truck ( actually a very old Chevy car with the rear body cut off and a flat bed bolted on.) His Oliver tractor supplied power vis a very long wide flat belt to power a corn chopper that had a chute to the top of the silo and once chopped it was propelled up the chute to fall to the bottom and start to pile up. There was a series of square hatches going up on the interior of a access building along side of the silo to give an indoor access so as you worked your way up to fill or down from the top as you took out the silage during winter you were at the level of what the fill level was. As you filled it you put the doors in, and he liked us to go in and pack the silage to remove air from it so it stored better. In winter as he used it he would climb the interior ladder to the fill level and as he worked down he would remove the doors. The cows loved the corn and produced better milk and it saved on hay costs. Think of it as a 14 foot round wooden silo with a 8x 8 foot rectangular silo built attached to it so it was connected to it to allow access to the side of the silo's fill door and was attached to the barn for easy access in winter. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qpi8gn2GpsuFpbs

[@robfinch3277]

@@CHRnorton Hi Carl, Thanks very much for the extensive reply. Very interesting and sounds like a lot of hard work.

[@constitution_8939]

When this Country was Still America, which is Long Gone today unfortunately for the World's future....if there is one worth living in.

[@PAI93]

At 1:26, that's Norwegian, not German

[@друг-е1к]

That’s my last name. How did I find this

[@nevertoopoortotour.3033]

Never too poor to tour

[@grandcrappy]

How the hell dies anybody live there? I did one -60° ACTUAL temp winter, never again, over.

[@corerlt]

Those silos were built in the wam end of MN. That -60 was in Tower MN. The temp probably never got below -45 on the warm end of MN.....

[@butchbinion1560]

✌🏻👊

[@kansascityshuffle8526]

Thought this was joe pera narrating

[@grandcrappy]

Ha I bet those workers drank laudenum or did coke, e'ry move was rawhide.

[@gergemall]

No , I never did. Why am I here?

[@EmilyTienne]

It’s all Chinese made silos these days.

[@PerspectiveEngineer]

So boring so great.