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| We currently haul everything to the local elevator during harvest. Between 40-60k bu beans and 170-215kbu corn. It works well and I try forward contracting aggressively to mitigate my storage costs. However just like most, some years I wish I had more sold and others I wished I had stored more.
We also don’t have an issue getting the crop out of the field in a timely manner and the elevator keeps us moving. So a bin site is not a necessity on the logistics side of harvest.
The problem:
-the elevator charges .085/bu/month storage and that has steadily increased over the years. Last year it was .065.
-the drying is .05/point.
-the elevator prices themselves under the local competition but just enough to probably make trucking it elsewhere not profitable.
So question.
-What do you estimate the cost of building a bin site with an appropriately sized drier to be? Say two 50kbu bins, a 25kbu bin, pit, leg, drier.. (we currently have nothing)
-with infrastructure depreciation, maintenance exp, yearly inputs… what’s your estimated drying costs per point?
My hesitation:
Bins are often an excuse to market grain passively.
The costs involved with more infrastructure and labor make paying storage and drying at the elevator reasonable.
In order to make a large investment like that pay I’d have to truck grain much farther out.
I know most guys love bins but I’m just curious about the investment vs opportunity cost. I also understand the idea of having full control of your own grain is nice.
Thoughts?
Edited by mlfarms1 10/10/2025 11:22
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On farm storage cost and ROI
