Grain Bin cost's

At the next step, time for more storage. Local elevator storage is $.03-$.05 per bushel per month. 10,000x$.05 adds up quick, then add your load out charge. Looking to put up about 10,000 or so bin for corn. not sure I want a heater drying bin, as some that have them are not happy with them, but for sure want full air. I was amazed this fall how good just having an aereation tube sucking on wet corn in wagons did. Any way. What would I be looking at for cost? I also would like to take a "free" 7500 bushel sioux bin from my aunt"s place. Simple bin, no air, no unlaod sytem, but its free and close. Would like to add an air floor, and unload system. Would a floor be available for a 21 approx diameter? Adding these two would suffice for a few years as I have plenty local available smaller bins for good dry grain, for cheap or nothing. Obviously a drier and wet bin are in my shopping list for this next year as well. Any advice on making this next step smartly, and cost effeciant?

Floor's are available and do not have to be the same make as the bin. Ventilation floors, fan, and vents are important and do not cut corners in the installation. Most guys I know put a fan in that exceeds the requirement for the bin size. Guys do have bins without air floors but that requires intense monitoring of the material going in as far as moisture and lack of foreign material. Ventilation allows a person to sleep much better at night. Bins also can be outfitted with sensor probes that can track the temperature to see if the grain is heating up.

I can't help you on costs. But I think you're on the right track. After babysitting my father's slow, costly, continuous flow MC dryer in my youth, I decided I wanted something different. He/we used that dryer for many more years. Fortunately for me, getting started, I had no capital expenses with it, just inputs. After a couple decades of that, and working off farm, I finally put up a 30' stir/drying bin in 1988. Several storage bins have been added over the years. A couple years ago I put up a "top dry". I don't know how many acres you would need to make a stand alone grain dryer cost effective, but I'll never see it.
I'm sure all 21' material is still available. I have two 21'x 24'(seven sheets per ring, nine rings high) bins. This was all a work in progress. We moved some small bins. Made one out of two. Raised an existing bin. Put up a bin, added the floor and unload a year later, etc. etc.
Do you have a dealer you can talk to? They are usually glad to scare you with prices!

Five years ago it was $2/bushel for a 20000 bu bin with floor and one ten HP fan. Remember to account for the cost of bringing power to the bin. If your farm is underpowered you might have a big update bill just with that.

If you only have one close market for your grain, store it in town. If you have several close markets you can play with it might pay to build a bin. Also, if the one local elevator has long lines in the fall, owning a bin sounds better. Remember, if you bin it, you have to handle the grain twice, and have the equipment to do it. Also, you have to monitor it. If you haul straight from the field to the elevator it's their baby to watch and care for. All you do is pay them for S&H and collect a check when you sell it.

I didn't have any farm storage for years because there was only one close market and that elevator could handle large amounts of grain in the fall. Now I can go four different ways with that corn so I did put up a bin. Might put up another one in a few years. Jim

I would never add the heat!! Back in about 75 or so, Dad put up a 7000 bushel bin, with the stirator, spreader, heat, and fans. In all the years since, I think we had propane hooked up twice. Just a waste of money in my opinion. You can always add a heater later. I think we used the stirator about the same.
As to the cheap close bin, lease some bin jacks and move it your self. Its just time, and not a real bad job. I can get you set up with a drying floor if you need, but I am in northern Nebraska. Most bin dealers will be able to get the floor.

I am not sure if you are much money ahead moving a bin. There is a lot of cost in the concrete, false floor, auger and fan.

I would not put in heater, would put in false floor with auger under it, and fan. Make sure and put in a big enough bin, because these costs are nearly the same regardless of the size. That is why I would not recommend you put up a 7500 bushel if you really need a 10K.

I had a friend that had a wire bin for ear corn with a wooden drying shoot in the middle. He used a torpedo heater and set the bin on fire. He was a volunteer fireman.

Back when I started looking, I found several used bins. They wanted half price of new. I quickly concluded that if the bin was GIVEN to me, maybe it was worth it. I went with new. I also quickly came to the same conclusion you have on size.
I see the consensus here is NO heat. I imagine that has to do with location/climate. Here in NY you don't dry anything without heat in the fall, and often not even in summer.

The reason I say no heat is because you tend to cook the corn near the heater. It just doesn't have as good of grain movement as a dedicated drier.

We produce a lot of waxy corn, and it has a much lower drying temperature. The separate drier allows for much better temperature control throughout the unit.

There's another difference- a different type of grain. With the stir drying bin, in corn, I ran 110-120 deg. F plenum temp. Most stand alone dryers around here run 200 deg. F.

We can adjust our drier on plenum temperature, and adjust the feed rate to get the desired moisture. The dent corn gets the higher temperature and the waxy the lower.

The augers are controlled by the drier, so fill up the wet bin and let it roll.

We had Wheat bins on the farm, and got bugs in it in 2000. I did the numbers and cost me less to storage it at the elevator for 5 months than bin it. Never bin-ed it for the next 7 years. Rented farm bins to a neighbor that sold seed wheat. Win-Win

What temp. do you run on the waxy corn?

It has been a couple of years since we have had to dry corn, so will double check, but I am thinking we dried it at 150-160.

Not important. I just find different crops and practices from around the country(and the world for that matter, like Sam in N. Ireland) interesting.

You're looking at $2-$2.50 per bushel to build a bin, depending on the exact setup you choose to go with. If you do the math on storing at the elevator vs. storing in your bin, you have to be running a lot of acres to justify putting one up. Unless of course you have a long drive to get to the elevator and can't haul out of the field fast enough.

We usually get about .60 premium for the waxy. It yields a little lower, but seems to make up the difference. We have to provide storage because local elevators are not set up to keep it separate from dent.

I don"t understand all those who say just take it to the elevator. You lose all marketing options, and pay drying, shrink, storage, plus risk loss of your grain. "94 a local elev filed BK, 65 neighbors lost 1.1 million. Bond wasn"t enough protection. I used to store there but bought new/used bins so everything stayed at home. Bins looked pretty cheap then.

Make sure every bin has air. Floors are easy to add. Same with stirators, vents, etc. Can use a stand alone or in-bin dryer. This is MN, dryers are not an option.

I do service work on dryers, fans, heaters, legs, etc. you name it. I don't know how some guys get by putting 20%+ corn in a bin and air drying it. Every year I meet a new customer who has NEVER used heat in a bin. I have started to wonder what kind of quality the grain is they sell.....

Stirrator and a heater is a good setup, but you need to know something about them. Like any equipment, setup right...they work great. For speed....a dryer (batch or continuous) is better. There are ups and downs to both.

You can get retrofit floor kits for any size bin. You may have to cut to fit, but that's not a big deal.

moving a bin is ok, but it has to be CHEAP or free better yet.

If you are really wanting to dry in the bin....you need a stirrator.

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About 15 years ago I opted out of using our bin dryer and moved in about 20,000 bu (3 bins) and purchased an automatic batch dryer. The first year on 40,000 bu the gas savings over the bin dryer paid for dryer and all related costs in one year over operating the bin dryer. Not every year requires a lot of drying but this year in NE Iowa we had a lot of wet corn I mean really wet corn. Many acres are still over 30 percent. 4-5 bushels per gallon of fuel is the common cost around here. Now that is $.35 and about $.02 for electric. I hauled 4 semi loads to town direct when we just couldn't get the dryer caught up. They offered no lube when they charged $.95 to $1.35 bu for drying and another $.12 on test weight and 25% shrink. I just paid for all my bins over in one year plus I get to haul direct to ethanol plant and collect another dime.
Definetly go for full floors. Unload systems can be pretty cheap. A lot of good 6 or 8 inch tubes and flighting out there on the consignment sales. Shine is nice but black on the ledgers is a lot nicer. I have always got to remember in marketing just because the bin is there empty be sure and take a profit instead of thinking that bin needs to sit full.

I gotta add my 2 cents. Check around to see if you can rent some bin jacks for a few days. The cement will be the most expensive part of the 7500 bu bin. Look in the archive for bin moving, it's been posted on here before. You can have the bin down and on a trailer in less than a day. If it's not too far away, leave the top ring and roof together and haul on a trailer. Your in Mn, I think you definately need a drying floor and heat. Some kind of a stirator would be a must. Here in western Ill, I have only used the heater 2 times since 2005 on my bin, but when I needed it, I needed it right then. My used bin has a circuflow unit in it, I can run the fan and circulate the grain as needed and usually can dry 20% corn down with air only if the temps stay above 60°. Always have a good test weight. When it gets down to the 20° temp range, I run the fans for a day or so and get the corn good and cold until it warms up in the spring and then run the fan a few days to warm it back up. I have never had corn go out of condition even when stored until August. Probably the best investment I've made on this place. Around here, you can get a used floor with supports for $500 to $600, I put a used floor and new supports in a 18' bin 2 years ago for $500. Used augers aren't too expensive, I bought a 8"x61 with a mechanical drive hopper for $800 last fall. The most important thing is to move a lot of air thru the grain and check it at least once a month, 7500 bu corn x 4.50= $33,750. Would you put that much money in a can in your machine shed and never look at it until you needed it 4 or 5 months later? I doubt it. Grain in the bin is like money in the bank, you have to keep an eye on it. The only people around here you have trouble with stored grain are the ones who think they can't afford the electricity to run the fans. Good luck whatever you do, Chris