Interested in building on-farm storage? Here are some tips from our experts.
Site selection
Keith Miller, with Miller Welding in Rosendale, Missouri, sells Sukup grain bins and said there are several key points to remember when selecting a site to build on-farm storage.
Farmers should select a site that is accessible by trucks, has electricity and will provide future expansion. That includes good access from the road and plenty of space around the bins.
According to Kansas State University, semi-trucks require a minimum turning radius of 55 feet or a diameter of 110 feet. Also, the site’s physical attributes should be assessed including drainage, proximity to other buildings and groundwater levels.
Electricity
Before any building begins, Miller stressed farmers must meet with the local electric company about the electrical needs of the site, as well as any rules or issue that could occur.
For example, in Missouri, farmers using an auger must be 100 feet from a power line. With a leg, they can be 15 feet away. However, rules are different between states and with different companies.
“Talk to your electrical company and make sure you are putting the bin in a spot that you can,” Miller said. Also, “If you have a farm with three-phase electricity, you are a lot better off than a farm with single phase,” he said. “And, if you are planning on drying, if you have natural gas you are better off than propane.”
Good aeration
If you’re storing corn, Dave Erwin, owner of Wabash Construction, normally recommends farmers have a half cubic foot per minute per bushel in airflow to the bin.
“For a 20,000-bushel bin, you want your fan to deliver 10,000 cubic feet per minute,” Erwin said.
Keeping track of moisture and temperature
Depending on what you are storing, you might need to know the temperature and moisture of your grain at different depths, Erwin said. At an average cost of about $1,000, temperature cables are the least expensive option. There is also a more elaborate digital moisture control system that will turn on the bin’s aeration system and keep the grain at a predetermined moisture content. Many farmers can monitor this through their cell phones.
Nebraska farmer Jeremy Stone relies on his combine monitor and then uses a grain dryer to make adjustments. For corn, he usually bins at about 15.5 percent moisture.
Erwin said the benefit of the higher-end system is farmers can maintain an adequate moisture content for crops such as soybeans.
For instance, if you bin 7 percent moisture soybeans, a farmer could condition those soybeans back to 12 percent moisture, which would increase yield by 5 percent.
Check your bins
Don’t just bin your grain and forget about it. Sure, you are not paying the 5 or 6 cents a bushel to store your grain at the elevator. But there is still some time and money into storing grain on the farm. Among those is the cost of monitoring and maintaining grain quality, according to Iowa State University.
Variable costs can include electricity to operate fans, insecticides and fungicides, fuel to operate augers and the operator’s time for handling the grain in and out of the bin.
J.B. Stewart, who has had grain bins on his Keyes, Oklahoma farm since 1978, said he makes sure dry, clean grain samples of wheat are going into his bin to help alleviate storage problems. He added that higher test weight grain stores better.
He said they continuously monitor their bins. For wheat, that includes for insects.
How often should you monitor your bins? Stewart said he took to heart what one speaker told a farmer during a meeting. The expert asked how much grain the farmer was storing.
“’Ok, that equates out to about $30,000,” Stewart said the speaker told the farmer. “If you had a 5-gallon bucket hanging in that bin with $30,000 in it, how often would you open the door and see if it is still in there?’
“You have to be willing to take the extra steps if you want to go into on-farm storage,” Stewart said.
Think of the future
Always think about the future, said Miller. That includes the bins you are purchasing and the site you chose for your storage system.
“Whatever size bin you are thinking about, don’t go for what you need now at this time today,” Miller said. “Think about how your yields are getting bigger every year. Five years ago, on-farm storage average bins were 30,000 bushels. Now I’d say it is 55,000.”
Erwin said he encourages those considering a new facility to get with someone and design a system with an end goal in mind. Companies like Wabash will walk producers through the planning process, he said.
Stone said when he and his father, Keith, put up two 20,000-bushel bins 10 years ago, it was his father who was thinking about the future.
“It was his idea to clear a pad for future expansion,” he said. “And I’m glad we did that.”
Today, that site has about 180,000 bushels of storage.
“We have enough room for two more 70,000-bushel bins,” Stone said.
Best time to buy bins is wintertime
November through February is the best discounts for bins to get them ordered and up by fall, Miller said.
Amy Bickel can be reached at abickel@hpj. com or 620-860-9433.
