Background: I am in Central Kansas. Yields from year to year are highly variable. We have a fairly large grain facility for the area and after our next planned expansion, we should be able to hold 60% of our grain from non-share rented ground on an average year. Since our grain facility is funded by debt, not cash, it would be hard to build any more than that. Because in the event of a bad year, we'd have quite a bit of storage sitting idle.

Question: I am thinking about when we build the next bin and a leg, to run a drag conveyor and a drop to a ground pile. We'd pack it with lime, use the bunker stands that elevators use, and have aeration. We'd also use one of those tarps with the chute at the top to connect to the leg drop so that the pile would always be covered. Grain would be dried and cooled in big bins if needed before being transferred to the pile. A 110,000 bushel bunker should hold almost all of the rest of our corn on an average year. Pile would probably be picked up in February or March, but if we could do it, holding it to July or August would be nice. Our winter precip is usually limited, a couple 5in snows and .25" rains usually. We have the equipment to pick it up. Would this be a stupid idea? Elevators around here keep wheat in bunkers for 2+ years sometimes, but I don't know what condition it comes out in.

A lot of people in the area are starting to use baggers, but I'm not sold on the idea. From what I can figure, it would cost around $0.28/bu to bag corn and you have to run around to a bunch of different fields to pick them up.

Some might say "take it to town and just buy paper," but the past few years we've be getting a 25-45 cent basis bump over local just by binning it and selling to a broker straight out of the bin. I don't want to give that up.