 Central Nebraska | Go bigger.....much bigger....if you think you will ever need it. I put up a 60x22 ring 150,000 bushel Brock bin last year. Dirt work, concrete, bin, erection, fans, electrical, withdrawal, and air system piping came out $2.48/bushel. It was financed with FSA using a Farm Facility Storage Loan for 12 years. I had three bids and they were are all similar, but the one I went with quoted everything correctly the first time. When I did this it was the largest I could do in that price/bushel range. If I went bigger things got more expensive, and if I went smaller it didn't get less expensive quickly.
I'll be the first to admit that putting a pencil to a project of that size can be intimidating. Will I capture basis improvement in the market every year to make it work? Probably not, especially since I don't raise enough corn every year to fill it up. For me it came down to this. My operation needed to raise more corn for several reasons. Bean yields are/were struggling on a 50/50 rotation and corn yields are generally increasing faster. Also, it allows me to harvest with a smaller crew and do it faster. Finally, I decided I could raise more corn, take it to the elevator at harvest and give them the money, or I could build a bin. I choose to build the bin and not have to plan my crop rotation around storage. |