There are various ways to store your grain, whether on-farm or off-site. These include storage bags, silos and grain sheds; however, it is important to evaluate which option will work best for you. Often these storage options can be used in conjunction with each other for practical and efficient grain handling operations.
The Pros and Cons Of Your Grain Storage Options
Silos, storage bags or sheds – here are the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Silos
Advantages:
- Easy loading and unloading, requiring very little manual labour, cone-bottom silos minimise this even further as they lessen the need to shovel grain from the silo to completely empty them.
- Effective protection of grains.
- Increased flexibility in selling grain.
- Around 25-year service life.
- Add value to your property.
Disadvantages:
- High initial cost.
- Failure of silos when they collapse, split and spill.
- Safety issues such as injury or even death of workers inside silos, as well as the danger of silo gases.
- Not an effective storage option for all grains i.e. high-moisture grains do not empty well from silos. In these cases, grain storage bags or sheds are better options.
Grain storage bags
Advantages:
- Low initial cost.
- A useful tool to improve logistics of harvest.
- Ideal if a permanent structure is not feasible or practical.
- Allows separation or segregation of grains.
Disadvantages:
- The cost of equipment and fencing off.
- Need a carefully prepared site to prevent tearing of material and infestation.
- Labour intensive for site preparation, when filling and when conducting regular checks of the condition of the bag.
- Difficult to manage insect and pest infestation and grain quality.
- Short-term storage, usually up to 3 months.
- Single-use only.
- Not always accessible in wet conditions.
Grain sheds
Advantages:
- Facilitates fast storage at harvest, reducing stress, interruptions and delays.
- In some cases, they can be multi-purpose, used to store machinery or materials other than grain.
- Effectively protects grain.
- Increases market flexibility enabling you to respond to demand.
- Safer than silos, having little or no risk of death or injury.
- Low cost per stored tonne.
- 30 year plus service life.
- Add value to your property.
- Allows on-farm blending and preparation of grains.
Disadvantage:
- A high level of hygiene is required when the shed is multi-purpose to prevent contamination of grain by other materials or machinery. This can be remedied by having precautionary and preventative measures in place beforehand to minimise time and labour need to ensure cleanliness.
