# 5000 bushel bin



## Widairy (Jan 1, 2016)

I want to get some on farm storage for feeding my cattle instead of hauling to the mill and paying storage and trucking both ways. I understand I will need a grinder/mixer mill to process the corn. Does anyone have experience with moving old bins? Any advise to give. I'm green in the grain storage department. Any putz can call a dealer and get a new one put up if you have that kind of money. I don't at this time. I'm hoping to have something for 2017 harvest.

Any advise will be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Chris


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

If you're not going to the mill you would have to decide.. will you always be able to harvest the crop dry? Will you put a drying floor in the bin. Or will you add some type of a grain dryer so that you can dry your grain before going into the bin?,h


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## danwi (Mar 6, 2015)

There are are bunch of what some guys called government bins that must have been put up during some farm program that measure 18 ft diameter x 18 feet high they are about 3500 bushel you would need two of them or one bin just alittle bigger. you can get some of these bins for little or nothing just for taking them away sometime. Moving them is no big deal 3 or4 men can take one down in a day and put it up in a couple days. There are some that move small bins with out taking them down or others take some rings off and just move the top whole but if you move any distance just take it all apart. You need to dry the corn in Wisconsin you cannot count on the weather to make it dry enough and keep over summer. You will also want a floor in the bin so you can blow air thru the corn.


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## bbos2 (Mar 20, 2015)

I don't have roller mill but I put up corn in a dryer bin . my local co-op grinds my feed. For what they sell gluten and rumeson for I couldn't afford a roller mill. But I haul corn out of bin to the co-op, and bring grindings back so I'm loaded both ways. I don't have to pay storage, Less trucking to town and don't have to pay the co-op for grindings delivery either.

Around here I've seen guys move smaller bins on Donahue implement trailers since there low to the ground you don't have to completely disassemble the bin. Just be very careful around electical wires. Could kill somebody bumping into one of them


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## Widairy (Jan 1, 2016)

I planned on putting a slotted floor in the bin and a fan with heat to dry the corn. I know I'm on the northern fringes of good ripe corn, I've been raising crops for 20 years. Building a high moisture silo is cost prohibitive and small diameter bags of hammer milled corn are messy. I also want the versatility of have the corn dry in the bin so I can sell if we don't need it for the livestock.


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

Have moved lots of bins, actually have one hanging on jacks as we speak. What do you want to know? I'm pretty tired tonight to describe the process, I'll do a good post with some pictures when it rains in a day or so.


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

We've moved a few small bins. Usually just had the co op come out with their crane and lift them onto our chain movers haul em home. We put all those that we moved and all of Dads older bins on hopper cones with aeration in the cone. It maybe cheaper to move old bins but I do like the new hopper bins we've bought better. Nice to have better safer ladders, sight glasses, and open from the ground lids.


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## Widairy (Jan 1, 2016)

IHCman if you don't mind saying, how much per bushel did the new bins cost you? Whenever I have talked to bin dealers 4th they shoot me a price for new at about 4$ per bushel. Maybe I'm the one out of line but that seems steep considering that doesn't include the concrete.


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## danwi (Mar 6, 2015)

Look for something like a 7000 to 10,000 bu drying bin, gives you a little room to expand. not the best idea but you can hold a little over from year to year, that would be better with a 2 bin system. How fast will you be combining the corn off? Drying bins work good I would say when you fill them in a 2 to 5 day window. to fast is not good and to slow the corn on the bottom gets dry and you have to stir the wet corn in from the top. The best place to look for used bins like that is southern Wi. or Ill. where farmers outgrow them although some have put cones on the bottom and then either feed a dryer or use them as load out bins to fill a truck fast. The other place to find them is where a farm is being made into a subdivision. With your own labor and a little luck finding a cheap used bin and depending on what you add to it I would think it could be done for between $.50 and $2.00 a bushel


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## Widairy (Jan 1, 2016)

The corn would be harvested in one or two days, I don't have a combine at this time and the neighbor that I hire has a rotary Deere and runs the crop off almost as fast as I can haul it home. I figured on putting sturrators in the system as well when drying corn.


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## danwi (Mar 6, 2015)

With a drying floor and stirrators you will lose some capacity in the bin so you need a larger bin. If the corn is wet you shouldn't put it all in in A day you will have problems blowing air thru it, and the stirrators can give you problems. Have heard of people having to pull some corn back out to get them going again.


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## bbos2 (Mar 20, 2015)

danwi said:


> With a drying floor and stirrators you will lose some capacity in the bin so you need a larger bin. If the corn is wet you shouldn't put it all in in A day you will have problems blowing air thru it, and the stirrators can give you problems. Have heard of people having to pull some corn back out to get them going again.


Been there. Turning stirrators by hand in 100° bin, because of too much wet corn, then getting out and its 37° outside, is not fun


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

Widairy said:


> IHCman if you don't mind saying, how much per bushel did the new bins cost you? Whenever I have talked to bin dealers 4th they shoot me a price for new at about 4$ per bushel. Maybe I'm the one out of line but that seems steep considering that doesn't include the concrete.


Bought a 3200 bu Meridian hopper bin last year for 14k. Has aeration and is epoxy coated. So yes a little over $4 per bu. Could be a little cheaper without the epoxy coating and aeration. Does seem a little expensive but I feel over the lifetime of the bin its worth it. Plus around here used hopper bins seem to hold their value really well. A neighbor has been selling off his smaller hopper bins that are 10+ years old to put up bigger bins and he has been getting as much as he paid for them new.

Dad and I bought 3 small 1200 bu Behlen bins for 100 bucks apiece and then had cones built for another $4000 with aeration. The cone probably adds another 100 bu of storage. A little cheaper but still kinda high.

Anyway you look at it storage can be kind of expensive. Over the lifetime of use though I feel its worth it.


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## Widairy (Jan 1, 2016)

Thanks for all the information guys. I will keep my eyes open looking for something used unless something changes where I have a bigger budget. For me I can see a handful of things where having my own storage will be nice. Maybe hard to put into dollars and cents. One of the big headaches I have grown tired of over the years is trying to coordinate everything between the harvesting the custom bagger or the mill and the trucking to the mill with the dry corn. Sometimes it comes together nice and others it just gets rough. I figured with the bin or bins that would be a lot less. Coordinate with the combine, set the auger and go. We will see as time goes I guess.

Thanks again
Chris


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

We've erected all the bins on the farm except two, the largest was a 36 footer, a 27 footer, then the smallest were three 24 footers, took the 36 down with our cable jacks but rented hydraulic bin jacks to erect it since we added three rings to it, that large a bin 11 rings tall gets just a little squirrelly with cable jacks. So&#8230;we've erected 5 bins ourselves, did all the concrete, electric, etc. Shortest is a 9 ring with stirator and fan/heater for tough beans, tallest is a 12 ring for dry corn, all have the smooth perforated floors instead of chisel cut. All except the bean bin have pipes to em for the pneumatic grain mover, all are set up so corn can be blended while loading out.

Jacks are for sale, by time you figure in the time to take the old ones down, new hardware like bolts, ladders with safety cages, stiffener/safety rings for the roof, additional new rings to make em taller, new man doors if the originals are only single ring or can't take additional height, time to re-erect them, etc. it's barely worth doing yourself, next ones will be new that we pay to have done.


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

How much ya want for the jacks Marty? Could always use a few more as we always have a bin or two to move.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Don't know, I'll have to ask Dad, they come with a running gear to store em on and transport.


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