Big bin built on budget and on time

When Ruawai pedigree Holstein breeders and dairy farmers Blair and Neil Sidwell needed to build a new maize silage bin they called on Interblocfor the solution. With 35 years farming experience the Sidwells know what they want when it comes to their business, and Neil was quite precise. “Build us a silage bin, forty by twenty, by one point two metres high!” he said.

Once the floor was poured, and the required number of blocks had been transported to the site, the Interbloc team had built their bin within two days, and it was full of good maize silage, safe and sound, two weeks later. Before committing themselves to building an Interbloc maize silage bin, the Sidwell brothers went through an extensive cost comparison process, from which Interbloc emerged to beat the nearest competitor’s price by 50%.

Combining this factor with the flexibility and durability of its products, and the speed of the Interbloc operation was, as the Sidwells’ said, “… a no-brainer!” Like the Sidwells’, more and more farmers now recognize the advantages of the Interbloc silage bins over the alternative in-ground pits.

“No more mud contaminating the precious resource, which on a bin this size (1000M3) can lead to silage losses of up to 30%, or $23000,” said Interbloc’s Jack Bright. “The approaches to the new bin are clean and tidy, and with a more even compaction of the silage, its quality is maintained.

And the Sidwells are better able to more efficiently and economically deliver it to the Stock.” Blair Sidwell was also very pleased with the Interbloc solution and noted that when the planned increase in herd size takes place they will be able to easily increase the bin’s capacity with the simple addition of another row of Interblocs.