«Previous    Next»
Business Is Booming For Dairy Salvage Company
If you need stainless steel vats or cooling equipment, Dallas Schweitz of Salvage House probably has it. He and his wife Suzanne travel from Florida to California to find unused dairy equipment ready for repurposing.
  “There is an abundance of used dairy equipment on the market,” says Schweitz. “We sell a lot of used tanks for all sorts of uses, like craft breweries and wineries. Anybody who needs food-grade handling equipment can use them.”
  He describes one customer who was going to make bubble gum and another who was making medicine for horse hooves. The petroleum industry uses them to make a chemical to flush out pipelines.
  Other uses include honey, maple syrup and molasses storage. People buy them for chilling chickens after scalding for feather removal. Others buy them for vegetable cooling.
  “A lot of people are hesitant to tell us when they are doing something unusual,” says Schweitz.
  Tanks can be as large as a 20,000-gal. vertical silos or a 14,000-gal. horizontal tank.
  “We also get a lot of small bulk tanks,” says Schweitz. “They are real popular with boutique organic dairies making cheese or selling milk locally. Goat dairies also like them, and they have come on strong in recent years.”
  Milk chillers are another common item at the Salvage House salvage yard. Schweitz has sold them to vegetable growers in California and even to a concrete plant. The plant used cold water to slow the concrete-making process.
  “If someone has a need, we can help,” he says. “If it’s too technical, we will refer them to a thermal engineer to set up the right system.”
  Gensets are another common item at Salvage House. However, they are part of a wide array of items that are constantly changing. “Our expertise lies in cooling tanks, chillers, plate chillers and milking equipment, but we sometimes have a pile of thermal equipment such as fans,” says Schweitz. “In the past we have salvaged manure separation equipment and even tractors.”
  The inventory is constantly changing. Schweitz can be in a dairy scheduled to be demolished and cleared away. He has agreed on a price with the seller. Then he is told, “If you see anything else you want, take it. In 2 weeks all of this will be gone.”
  “Sometimes I have to remember that I only have so much storage space, and shipping to Illinois from the East and West coasts is expensive,” says Schweitz.
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Salvage House, 424 3rd St., Fullerton, Neb. 68638 (ph 308 536-2402; toll free 800 844-5427; salvage@hamilton.net; www.salvagehouse.net).



  Click here to download page story appeared in.



  Click here to read entire issue




To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.
Order the Issue Containing This Story
2019 - Volume #43, Issue #2