Storage per acre

[blackpowder]

Buckets gripe about building bins got me wondering.
What % of annual production #s does everyone feel they need in bin capacity?? Or say if your canola and wheat avg 50 - 60 is that a number.
I'd say 60bpa nice workable here.
Many variables of course.

[fjlip]

This little farm about 50, but have used up to 15000 in temp bins. Mainly need to forward price and MOVE at harvest. Most around here do some if great crops. Malt was gone in Sept, so less bags. Seems that CPS, now Nutrien at Wadena has sold well over a 100 1805 hoppers every year. Still not enough.

[bucket]

Buckets gripe about building bins got me wondering.
What % of annual production #s does everyone feel they need in bin capacity?? Or say if your canola and wheat avg 50 - 60 is that a number.
I'd say 60bpa nice workable here.
Many variables of course.

Thank you for highlighting this very important topic......currently at about 25 bpa but I like those elevator trips in harvest which usully is 10 bpa to the elevator...

Manageable with a diverse crop mix....

My goal would be to 40....elevator reps would see less of me as well...they would like that...

Errol said storage might not pay ...no shit. .. see thank you notes...

[blackpowder]

Sounds like bin manufactures have more years of full capacity to come.

[bucket]

Sounds like bin manufactures have more years of full capacity to come.

Dumb question....dont you think the graincos could build that storage cheaper and turn it more effectively than farmers?

I ****ing hate bins because it means another cost of augers...etc...Nothing cheaper than combine to elevator...I would say for my farm on the new bins for the next 10 years I would have to make an extra 50 cents every year to pay for and ROI those bins minimum....

Since harvest durum has lost a buck a bushel....

[checking]

I really liked the quote the quote that if you know the number of bins you have, you haven't got enough.

[Partners]

We have 48 b/a storage here..Way short this yr(18000 bus.) because of extra land seeded when C+D ditch was cleaned and a very good crop. Lucky Viterra and RP had space at harvest...We usually forward price 10 b/a in May/June for off the combine...

[blackpowder]

Specific variables per operation of course. One here would be farm consolidation with grossly outdated storage. Wet falls another. Special crops. Variable specs. Increasing acres per combine.
For years I've presold or temporary stored what I felt to be too much.. 30%+.
It is upon us to control as much as we can. A little market power. Just like the big companies. Western Canada is not like the US or Australia.
Here, I believe a modern bin will pay for itself easily within 10 or less years. If your under capacity, more like 5.

[Herc]

53.3 bpa storage. Mix of flats and hoppers.

[farming101]

Selling calls on your unpriced wheat could be a plan.

Example:

Sept 5, 2018 50,000 bu wheat is in the bin but you don't want to sell right now.
MGE Dec18 $6 calls settled at 18 cents US
So you sell calls on 50,000 bushels and pocket 9000 US less commissions

Nov 8, 2018 decide to sell 10,000 bu wheat.
Local price has gone up $9 CAD/tonne since Sept 5
Make decision on calls. Can either let expire in 15 days or buy 10,000 bu worth back.
They are now worth 2.875 US cents /bu

You rationalize that you still have 40,000 bushels in the bin and you will speculate that it will go up in value.
So the profits from the options sale are used to pay down your new storage bins to the tune of about 10,500 CAD taking into account the commissions (that is if you buy back calls to cover the bushels sold and the remaining calls expire worthless on Nov 23)
You also made $9 CAD/tonne in the market by storing your wheat for 63 days

True if Dec wheat futures went higher that 6.18 you may have had your call exercised but maybe not. And anyway you have the proceeds from the sale since Sept 5 and can sell some wheat at what should be a higher price to cover any loss in the options deal.

[poorboy]

To be real meaningful the storage number needs to be a percentage of average yields for your farm. If you grow mainly 20 bushel lentil crops you are going to need much less storage than growing mainly 100 bushel barley crops.

I grow barley, wheat, canola and peas and have 65 bushels/ac storage, which is about the same as my long term average yield.

[farmaholic]

A cheap ****er from here once told me there's as much ground to store it on as you grew it on.

Another huge factor is how much land you rent and how spread out those acres are. People who rent alot around here use alot of grain bags. I don't think you can own storage for rented land.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

I try to maintain at least 100 bu/acre storage as we expand acreage. On a good year we need almost that much(this definitely wasn't one of those years, cereals yes, canola not even close).

Had a few recent years where we have filled every bin, shed, quonset then had no where to turn tough grain.

Drying in bins requires extra storage, best not to fill completely full, need to turn the grain.

Nearest elevator over an hour away. Harvest season here is typically an intense round the clock affair, and everything tends to be ready at once, so there is no window for hauling in between.

I'm not a big fan of taking advantage of harvest happy hour pricing, I don't sell ahead due to high risks of not getting a crop off around here, this year is a perfect example. My marketing strategy involves holding grain until I can get an acceptable price. Sold 2017, a lot of my 2016, and some left over 2015 feed wheat and barley this summer when the opportunity came. That payed for a lot of bins.

Of course, I'm not buying many new bins unless in a bind, buy used bins, extend them, and put them on farmer built hoppers with U trough aeration. Can get an aeration hopper bin set up for closer to $2 per bushel rather than $4 to $5 for new. Buying used steel floors whenever I can find bargains too.

[Sheepwheat]

About 100 bushels an acre here. But I do not use the 8 or so 1650 flat bottoms from the olden days, unless I have lots of oats or barley. Then I cram em with flax or canola. Been buying new bins in the years I can afford to. Nice to open a chute and let er buck. Use a ten inch super charged Brandt to haul out with. One thing I always did hate was slow augers and shoveling grain, sweep or not. That and moving augers after 2/3 of a load on. After shovelling. Drove me nuts.

So while my farm is way behind in 95% of ways, I am in good shape for storage and load out. Only regret was not buying 14 foot cones when they were 1400 bucks, and buying a few flat bottoms early in my career.

Hopper bins hold their value, you have to figure that into the cost that seems to turn some off. Not much iron you can buy these days that retain value on the farm these days. And the time savings, and labor savings are enormous.

[Ronski]

62000 bushels of storage for 800 acres, its enough but kind of a pain. Whats a hopper anyways?