U.S. Grain Storage Capacity Continues to Expand

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U.S. on-farm storage capacity rose to 13.235 billion bushels as of Dec. 1, 2015, up less than 1% from year-ago, while off-farm storage capacity rose 3% to 10.997 billion bushels as of Dec. 1, 2015, according to USDA’s National Ag Statistics Service (NASS).

On-farm storage: Iowa continues to lead all States with 2.00 billion bushels of on-farm storage capacity followed by Minnesota with 1.50 billion bushels. Other major States include Illinois with 1.47 billion bushels, Nebraska with 1.18 billion bushels, North Dakota with 880 million bushels, and Indiana with 850 million bushels of on-farm storage capacity. These six states account for 60% of the Nation’s on-farm storage capacity with the top four states that have 1 billion bushels or more accounting for more than 46% of the total capacity.

On-farm grain storage capacity includes all bins, cribs, sheds, and other structures located on farms that are normally used to store whole grains, oilseeds, or pulse crops.

Off-farm storage: The largest increase occurred in Iowa where an additional 70.0 million bushels of capacity was added since December 1, 2014. Other notable increases were shown in South Dakota, where capacity increased 49.0 million bushels, and Nebraska which was up 32.0 million bushels from 2014.

Illinois and Iowa remained the two largest off-farm storage capacity states in 2015 at 1.50 billion and 1.47 billion bushels, respectively. Kansas was the third largest followed by Nebraska and Minnesota. These five states accounted for 52% of off-farm storage capacity on December 1, 2015, with the top three states accounting for more than 36% of total off-farm capacity.

Off-farm grain storage capacity includes all elevators, warehouses, terminals, merchant mills, other storage, and oilseed crushers which store whole grains, soybeans, canola, flaxseed, mustard seed, safflower, sunflower, rapeseed, Austrian winter peas, dry edible peas, lentils, and chickpeas/garbanzo beans. Capacity data exclude facilities used to store only rice or peanuts, oilseed crushers processing only cottonseed or peanuts, tobacco warehouses, seed warehouses, and storage facilities that handle only dry edible beans, other than chickpeas/garbanzo beans.

Off-farm storage facilities totaled 8,638 on December 1, 2015, down slightly from December 1, 2014. States with the largest number of facilities include Iowa with 900, Illinois with 850, Kansas with 726, Minnesota with 585, and Nebraska with 477.

Comments: The US has just over 24.3 billion bushels in storage capacity in the combined off- and on-farm storage facilities and has continued to add capacity over the past five and 10 years. Compared to 2010, US on-farm storage capacity has risen 6% while off-farm capacity is up 13%. Compared to 2005, on-farm storage capacity has risen more than 16.5% while off-farm capacity has increased 29%. In 2005, the US had 19.885 billion bushels in total storage capacity with 22.255 billion bushels in 2010.

NOTE: This column is copyrighted material; therefore reproduction or retransmission is prohibited under U.S. copyright laws.