How Much Grain Storage Do You Need?

When Gary Woodruff was in high school in the 1970s, his neighbors kidded that a farmer who put up a 10,000-bushel grain bin would never fill it.

Woodruff is with GSI, a grain bin manufacturer in Assumption, Illinois and says it's rare now for a farmer to buy a bin as small as 10,000 bushels.

"Every time we think, well, it just can't get any bigger, it gets bigger," says Woodruff. "Today's farmers are bigger than the average commercial installation was 25 years ago."

Woodruff says many farms now have hundreds of thousands of bushels of storage.

"Don't build what you think you need for today, build what you think you're going to need for the next five to 10 years and then make sure you have the ability to expand even beyond that. You've got to think about drying and how much you'll be drying. You've got to have enough wet holding to supply that dryer. You may need to put in a second wet holding in later, you may need to put in a second dryer or a larger dryer sometime in the future," says Woodruff. "But the key issue is that you're planning for the future, not for what you're doing just today."

Learn more at GSIag.com.

For more grain storage and handling stories:

• Need More Storage? Order Grain Bins Now
• Adding Bins Allows You to Capitalize on Carry
• Build Grain Storage with Room to Expand

The Successful Farming Radio Podcast is an Internet version of the Successful Farming Radio Magazine. Created by Darrell Anderson and the editors of Successful Farming magazine, each episode offers tales from the trenches, must-know info, and expert advice.