I have been looking into grain storage solutions for small to medium sized farms. The day is long gone from our area where we had public storage for grains. The closest public elevator is in Navasota, Texas 102 miles away. Obviously, transportation costs would destroy any profit we might realize. If one wishes to take advantage of off season pricing, the best solution is some kind of on farm storage.
A 10,000 bushel grain bin will cost upwards of $32,000 to install. As look at larger bin capacities, the economy of scale becomes apparent, dropping costs to around 30 cents a bushel from $2 plus for smaller bins. A fixed grain bin will be exposed to property taxes as well.
This brings us to farmers like me who must lease land, often far from my base. Erecting storage bins on these properties is not an option. Grain Bagging, a concept that found its way to these shores about 10 years ago and now beginning to gain acceptance on a large scale, is an attractive option.
Grain Bagging is the storage of grain on well drained slightly sloping ground inside a giant plastic bag. The bags are 3 layer polyethylene tube 9 to 12 feet in diameter depending on the system, and up to 500 feet long. They are air tight and moisture proof. It is an excellent short term storage solution. They require fewer machines and personnel and eliminates trips to the elevator. With a bagger and un-loader a farmer can store his grain in the field where he harvested, sell the grain in the off season when commodity prices are stronger, and load the buyers trucks from his field saving transport and storage costs. He would not have to postpone harvest for available storage space or trucking availability. The grain bags are not fixed structures, so he would not be taxed.
Most of these machines include a bag pickup system that rolls the used bag up for easy disposal or recycling. The bags are not, however, reusable as the un-loader cuts the bag open as it unloads the grain. Tractor requirements for the larger systems are high, 100 horsepower. Renn markets a unit that uses a 10 foot diameter bag and requires 50 horsepower which makes it ideal for a small to medium sized operation. The bags cost from $1100 for smaller 250 foot bag to $2500 for a large 500 foot bag. The savings, in most cases, work out well. You would have to pencil it out for your particular operation. There is a danger of the bags getting ripped open by wildlife or vandals and what I hear there is no fool proof method to keep them out once they discover what is in them. All you can do is harden the target.
If you can harvest and store the grain on site, buying time to sell the crop, having transportation then paid by the buyer, you most likely will come out ahead. If we go with this type of system, that would be our plan.
Plenty to think about over the next month or two. I suspect we will continue to operate on a smaller scale for the time being. We may never become that kind of farm. I am not sure that I want to at this point.
Friday, July 26, 2013
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Climate, Farm Bill (or lack of) and Decisions
It looks like we may well receive enough rain to save my corn and peas. Not sure whether we are turning the corner or not on the ENSO cycle and this is simply the fulfillment of NOAA's climate predictions for the summer and fall of 2013. http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.pdf
So what this does for farming decisions in the coming months is indicate some moisture rather than the La Niña pattern that caused the Drought of 2010 -2013 and counting. Though conditions are better in parts of the Midwest, that does not hold true for all locations or the southwest. Last winter was so dry 6% of the winter wheat crop either did not germinate or was of such poor condition it could not be harvested.
Our planting decisions have to be based both in economics and climate concerns. Both are constantly in flux. With no Farm Bill and the 1949 permanent law looming, our operations will still be rooted outside the system. I spoke with a crop insurance agent a couple days ago who is working up a small grains quote for what we hope to do this fall and winter. If the 1949 law returns, I might have cotton acreage, but most likely not small grains under the allotment system. We also had some peanut allotment as well but I doubt we would qualify under the old system. I will still be able to insure the crop but most likely would not qualify for marketing guarantees for winter small grains. Not that that concerns me over much. So long as I can insure the crop I am happy if the loan rate is high enough to cover costs and make a profit.
Then comes the old standby. Southern peas. Dry weather has prevented us from making a crop for a couple of years, coupled with expansion costs on an expansion that didn't happen beyond equipment, and continuing mechanical issues with some of the equipment, the costs are eating us up. None of the money is borrowed, but it will still take years to dig out of the deficit. I miss the reliability of my old Pixall BH-100.
I am still looking for land to plant small grains on. You would think that in a time when drought has devastated the cattle business, land owners would be flocking to any chance at making some return from their land especially if it included grazing winter wheat or Elbon Rye for free in the winter time. No takers yet.
So what this does for farming decisions in the coming months is indicate some moisture rather than the La Niña pattern that caused the Drought of 2010 -2013 and counting. Though conditions are better in parts of the Midwest, that does not hold true for all locations or the southwest. Last winter was so dry 6% of the winter wheat crop either did not germinate or was of such poor condition it could not be harvested.
Our planting decisions have to be based both in economics and climate concerns. Both are constantly in flux. With no Farm Bill and the 1949 permanent law looming, our operations will still be rooted outside the system. I spoke with a crop insurance agent a couple days ago who is working up a small grains quote for what we hope to do this fall and winter. If the 1949 law returns, I might have cotton acreage, but most likely not small grains under the allotment system. We also had some peanut allotment as well but I doubt we would qualify under the old system. I will still be able to insure the crop but most likely would not qualify for marketing guarantees for winter small grains. Not that that concerns me over much. So long as I can insure the crop I am happy if the loan rate is high enough to cover costs and make a profit.
Then comes the old standby. Southern peas. Dry weather has prevented us from making a crop for a couple of years, coupled with expansion costs on an expansion that didn't happen beyond equipment, and continuing mechanical issues with some of the equipment, the costs are eating us up. None of the money is borrowed, but it will still take years to dig out of the deficit. I miss the reliability of my old Pixall BH-100.
I am still looking for land to plant small grains on. You would think that in a time when drought has devastated the cattle business, land owners would be flocking to any chance at making some return from their land especially if it included grazing winter wheat or Elbon Rye for free in the winter time. No takers yet.
Monday, July 15, 2013
Making Flour
The Drought of 2010 -2013 is responsible for the change in our business plan. That and a self-propelled bean picker that has seen better days. The dry weather actually started four years ago in a summer that was dry but not excessively so. We received enough rainfall at just the right time to make one of the best purplehull pea crops we ever had. We averaged 60-100 bushels per acre. We harvested with a Pixall BH-100 bean harvester. Loved that machine. We wanted to plant more acreage and that meant expansion. We traded the one row for a Chisholm Ryder MDH and a continuous pea sheller, boosting our thru put to 100 bushels per hour. We added a winter crop of sweet peas to the mix (Spring was the variety and they did very well). That is when our troubles started. The winter was a bit dry, but the peas made. Then the MDH blew a head gasket. We still had the BH-100 at the time so we harvested the crop with it instead. We spent about $1200 repairing the head gasket, when we discovered the gasket was blown because of a bad oil cooler leaking water into the oil. The oil cooler set us back another $600. The next season, the crop was almost nonexistent and we had no irrigation. Mechanical problems continued with the MDH. The next summer was worse, far worse. We planted mustard and rye last fall hoping to get some plant coverage over the soil so it didn't blow away. Some rain did come late in the winter and the cover crops made.
The rye did really well, and it cause us to think about raising grain. Margins on small grain are small, to say the least, and the only way ton profit from it is to make some value added product. Since there was no large industrial quantity of it, we decided to buy a table top flour mill, use our seed cleaning apparatus from our pea and bean operation to clean it up, then grind and market rye flour. The results were much better than we expected with regard to the product. We use it in our own cooking. Since I am a diabetic, rye fit nicely into my diet plan. Carbs are carbs, from a counting perspective, but replacing wheat bread with rye has had a positive effect on my health. The flour is just plain good.
On a whim we decided to attempt raising a little Native American corn for cornmeal and irrigating it. We researched this extensively and found two acceptable cultivars which we have planted in our fields.
We still have a few peas.
Along the way, we decided to raise dry edible beans, which is how we came across our combine. Unfortunately, the farm is thousands in the red because of all this. I shiver to think about it. we are far from insolvent, but it would be nice to see some income again. All this has been pushing us to more conventional farming, planting the usual commodity crops and utilizing Federal Crop Insurance and the like. It is a safer way to do business. Had I had not had enough personal capital and income aside from the farm we would have been out of it by now.
I spend a lot of time marketing rye flour now. It is available on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/Elliott-Family-Farms-Heirloom-Whole-Grain-Rye-Flour-2-pounds-/281119557919?pt=Small_Kitchen_Appliances_US&hash=item417408091f
Give it a try! We appreciate your business!
The rye did really well, and it cause us to think about raising grain. Margins on small grain are small, to say the least, and the only way ton profit from it is to make some value added product. Since there was no large industrial quantity of it, we decided to buy a table top flour mill, use our seed cleaning apparatus from our pea and bean operation to clean it up, then grind and market rye flour. The results were much better than we expected with regard to the product. We use it in our own cooking. Since I am a diabetic, rye fit nicely into my diet plan. Carbs are carbs, from a counting perspective, but replacing wheat bread with rye has had a positive effect on my health. The flour is just plain good.
On a whim we decided to attempt raising a little Native American corn for cornmeal and irrigating it. We researched this extensively and found two acceptable cultivars which we have planted in our fields.
We still have a few peas.
Along the way, we decided to raise dry edible beans, which is how we came across our combine. Unfortunately, the farm is thousands in the red because of all this. I shiver to think about it. we are far from insolvent, but it would be nice to see some income again. All this has been pushing us to more conventional farming, planting the usual commodity crops and utilizing Federal Crop Insurance and the like. It is a safer way to do business. Had I had not had enough personal capital and income aside from the farm we would have been out of it by now.
I spend a lot of time marketing rye flour now. It is available on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/Elliott-Family-Farms-Heirloom-Whole-Grain-Rye-Flour-2-pounds-/281119557919?pt=Small_Kitchen_Appliances_US&hash=item417408091f
Give it a try! We appreciate your business!
Friday, July 12, 2013
It is hot. It is dry. Work continues.
Corn was really stressed due to lack of rainfall. The last ten days were rough. In the interim, we received a little rain, and every bit helps. SO we installed surface drip irrigation. Hands are blistered from shoving the valve barbs into the main line. Back hurts from all the stooping and crawling.
In the middle of it, I had to take a break and run up to Missouri and fetch an Allis Chalmers All Crop Drill. A 15x7 for planting winter small grains. Got tired of renting junk for $259 a day. I think I made a good trade.
Corn was really stressed due to lack of rainfall. The last ten days were rough. In the interim, we received a little rain, and every bit helps. SO we installed surface drip irrigation. Hands are blistered from shoving the valve barbs into the main line. Back hurts from all the stooping and crawling.
In the middle of it, I had to take a break and run up to Missouri and fetch an Allis Chalmers All Crop Drill. A 15x7 for planting winter small grains. Got tired of renting junk for $259 a day. I think I made a good trade.
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