Johnnie St. Vrain: These silos never had roofs

Aug. 8—Dear Readers: Here's a Johnnie that was published originally in September 2014. I hope to have answers to newer questions starting again next week.

Good morning, Johnnie: Why have all the silos in the area had their roofs removed? Removing a silo roof is not an easy thing to do and there are no signs of any old roofs, so there had to be a reason or a financial incentive to remove them. — Russ

Dear Russ: I started with Jim Drew, who runs the Lohr-McIntosh Farm for Boulder County. He directed me to Marv Van Peursem, a Lohr-McIntosh tour guide and silo enthusiast. That's right: silo enthusiast.

"I know of only one silo offhand that has a roof," Van Peursem told me.

What?

"The average rainfall here is 15 inches," Van Peursem said. "In Iowa, the average is a little over 30, and few silos have roofs. My wife is from Pennsylvania, where it's 60 (inches). It's the same. The amount of rain that goes in has no effect on silage."

Silos are used for storing silage, which is, according to Merriam-Webster, "food for farm animals that is stored inside a silo."

Van Peursem said that generally, silos hold "corn silage that has to be chopped up into pieces less than three-quarters of an inch long."

Van Peursem said that silage originally was stored in deep pits.

"They were developed because they were looking for ways to feed dairy cows," he said.

Coming from Europe, tower silos first caught on in the northeast.

"They found out it was easier to unload because you start at the top," said Van Peursem, who described himself as an agricultural engineer.

(By the way, a Marvin Van Peursem holds four patents, according to the Iowa Inventors Database.)

To fill a silo, a farmer would use "a big blower with a hopper on the side," he said. "It blew up and loaded it into the silo."

Feeding cows meant climbing to the top of the silo and tossing the feed to the ground.

"There was a series of doors," he said. "You would start at the top, take out that door, throw (the silage) out, and work your way down."

Van Peursem said that silos around here — each 20 to 30 feet tall and built using concrete "staves" — were used "into the 1970s at the latest."

Now, farmers have returned to using bunker silos, which are pits in the ground and are covered by tarps.

Van Peursem said that he doesn't know how many silos remain standing in Boulder County but that he has counted 22 silos between Longmont and Lafayette.

"I can't understand why they are all still standing," he said, although he has a theory about why they weren't knocked down.

"In Iowa, (farm) land sells for 19,000 per acre. You don't let an empty silo stand; you bring a contractor in, bury it and plant corn over it."

Russ, I know that plenty of silos around the country still have roofs on them — I've seen the photos — but now I know that many of them did not, especially around here.

Send questions to johnnie@times-call.com.