Selling grain, small time operator

I have been thinking about my grain marketing strategies and am just a bit unsure what way is best for me. I am looking for opinions and ideas here.

First of all, I'm a little guy in central MN, 85 acres soybeans and 55 acres corn to be sold for grain. Local elevator is 6 miles away. Twin Cities markets about 75 miles away. I have gravity boxes that I can haul grain with. I don't have a corn dryer. I do have a 2200 bushel bin with an air floor and 2 smaller bins 1500 bushel each just with a cement floor in these. I've only done a very limited amount of marketing in the past, so not much personal experience here. Lets just say my beans run 40 bushel to an acre and the corn 150 bushel to the acre.

I want to maximize my income from my grain, I'm open to a bit more work to maximize income but only if the gain is worth the extra trouble. The easiest option is to take the grain right to the elevator from the combine, but that has its negatives like waiting in line, slow harvest, lower price, etc.

I could harvest and dump into my bins, then haul to the elevator a little at a time on days that I can't harvest, but the negative here is no real price gain as it is still being sold at harvest time, but there would be extra work from moving the grain twice. Of course once harvest is complete, I could leave the bins full and sell over winter when the price MAY be higher. Is this extra work worth the messing around? A neighbor but up a $50,000 bin last year thinking it was gonna be a clear money maker for him. He held all his corn after harvest and says the price went down and he actually lost money due to holding the grain. This makes me wanna just haul my grain right to market straight from the combine. Many people say grain bins are the money makers on the farm, did my neighbor just put up his bin at the wrong time?

I guess I am just trying to make use of the bins that I have, but wanna make sure its worth the while. I know future grain prices are ALWAYS a guess and a gamble, but could it be said that grain prices are TYPICALLY lower at harvest time?

How would you recommend a little guy like me handle his grain marketing? All opinions appreciated
 
Over time, there is an advantage to storing grain, vs selling at harvest. Otherwise, you wouldn"t see so many bins being built. You need to have drying facilities to store corn for more than a few days. Very seldom is it dry enough from the field, to hold all winter. I"m sure you have other regional markets, rather than the Twin Cities to be your only other choice.
 
I have been that way for awhile as well. I told a neighbor to watch what I do and do the opposite and you will make money.The only money I am making is the growing and cleaning of cover crop seed.I have even been thinking about quitting lately as there are still some big farmers in my area paying big rent money. Tom
 
Old way to use the bins and store on farm- harvest and feed cattle or hogs, sell them instead of grain. Still have price varying problems. Bins for later sale maybe good for long hauls to elevators, contract price for later delivery than regular harvest. Other way close enough to Twin cities- specialty crops but in your case maybe not practical for farmer markets for sweet corn. One crop for higher price is 'Chinese Black' soybeans, a lower oil content, higher protein variety used to make Tofu and the 'textured vegetable protein' fillings. Use of bins for only that variety is almost required by the buyers who've gotten contaminated beans from elevators that were supposed to keep 'edible by humans' beans separated, but had leftovers in bottom of bin or in spouts. Other specialty is flint corn meant for corn flour or polentia meal- the on site bins that don't get some GMA/round up ready corn mixed in is what the buyer needs and if you can get half way to 'Organic' crop, price may be double regular corn price- but yields are a little lower and 'semi organic' means minimal spray of few things, cultivatiing preferred so Amish and Mennonites are main suppliers. Edible bean price north central Iowa about 4 or so years back was $14.00 bushel according to brother who didn't take up contract offer, kept with standard oil type bean and got $8.00/bu. Specialty crop or contract for a later delivery to use some bin space after drying--or find a market for critter feed. RN
 
A wise marketer once told me "you are either going to pay for the elevator's bin or yours."

A gauranteed way to make money on the bin is to capture the carry... i.e. capture the gain in the market. Example: the best corn I sold this summer was in July... but it was sold last September during a momentary spike in the market. I was able to capture nearly 40 cents more than harvest delivery. Yes, I had to store the grain, and did not have use of the money for that period, but I id clear 40 cents more than the price at harvest.

There are other ways to make money with the bin, too, but that is the most straight forward.
 
Your grain buyer should let you deliver it from the field and store it for a future sale when you are ready. There will be a small storage fee.
 
Another way to make money with the bin(s) at least with beans.... the ability to store your beans short term may allow you to get in a truck to haul them somewhere that pays better. It is very common for me to sell beans to Milwaukee or other places than the local elevator. The difference in basis pays for the truck and then some.

Also keep in mind the ability to blend and dry. Beans with a good fan on them can remove moisture, saving you dockage. You can also be a little creative and blend things together to hit a good moisture level.
 
Possibly in your satiation consider the bins as making the combine run more to harvest faster. Sell at elevator when possible with out slowing harvest. However do not hold wet corn or beans that may spoil. If you truly think price will go up after harvest buy futures . No real difference between loosing money if prices goes down than holding in bin . Think about it,, if you have in bin and price drops some say Well I still have it,yes and you still lost money. With futures you can roll in to months longer out. With futures when snow or ice may make prices spike unloading grain is a simple phone call. Like fellow who said he had corn from two years that can be done easily with futures, no shring our poor condition, also income can be delayed for tax reasons.
 
I have about the same acres. I combine it and sell and take my chances. I don't have a bin and don't want to handle it twice.
 
Your beans should be dry so you can store them on the farm and haul to town when you want to sell and have the time. Corn will probably be wet so that will have to be dried in town . If you think the price will go up, you can store it there. Find out what the drying and storage cost will be. If corn gets down to 16-17 percent that bin with the air floor might work for "air drying". You need a good fan for that, I don't know what you have. If you have your doubts, just haul it to town, a lot of people do. Then you don't have to worry about it and handle it twice.
 
Well you have enough storage to hold all your beans so I would definitely do that. Then with the other 1500 bushel I think I would pick up a small dryer and dry the corn and dump in that bin. On rainy days haul that and store in elevator. Leave the last 1500 corn in your bin. You can pickup a small batch dryer for less then $500. Pays for itself in one season.
 
Bins generally make money but are not guaranteed to make money. Sometimes they do lose as well so you have to subtract the losers from the winners to determine ROI. I would have the bin full at the end of harvest since you already have it and market some at a later date. Most years there is an opportunity there. These days the return to bins will be less since farmers who have some cash from the past good years have invested in bins and now we have growing carry over stocks which is hiding in those bins and depreciating.
 
This year you will harvest around 3000 to 4000 bushel of beans and 5500 to 11,000 bushels of corn. The two 1500 bushel bins will hold most of your bean crop. The 2200 bushel bin with an air floor could be used as temporary storage for wet corn until it can be dried, that would let you keep a small combine running in corn for a day.

Do you rotate corn and beans? Next year you could have 55 acres of beans (1500 to 2700 bushels of beans) and 85 acres of corn (8500 to 17,000 bushels of corn).
 

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