On-farm grain storage, drying expand a producer’s options Tonica farmer shares several insights gained over the years Story by Tom C. Doran AgriNews Publications/Shaw Media
TONICA — Bill Sherman III made the decision several years ago to invest in on-farm storage and now enjoys the flexibility and harvest efficiency the system provides. The fourth-generation corn and soybean grower and his father put up their first grain storage bin on his father’s nearby homestead in the early 1990s and another on his own homestead in 2001. Since that time, the Shermans continued to work with GSI and add on to the storage system.
The main farm location now consists of nine dry and wet bins, continuous flow dryer, dump pit, overhead load-out, conveyors and total storage capacity of 350,000 bushels. He also has another 250,000 bushels at other farms, including his dad’s home place. “Some of them on the other farms we’ll put dry corn in from here, and we also put soybeans in some of them. I also raise seed soybeans and I store some of those. It just depends on the situation,” Sherman said.
Long-term plan He recommends expanding over time rather than an all-at-once investment. “I did not want to add bins all at once. I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money at one time, so we added as we could afford. You could spend a lot of money and lose land that you rent or something
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like that, so we did a little bit at a time and added as time went by. We have also added more land to our operation over time,” he added. The big step was made in 2013 when a GSI continuous flow dryer, additional grain storage and grain legs were installed on Sherman’s home site. One year later, Sherman had an overhead load-out bin installed. Another bin was added in 2019. “I got tired of drying corn in drying bins. It’s pretty slow plus the capacity is very time-consuming and it’s a lot of work,” Sherman said. “This is our central drying location and we haul out of that bin and fill other bins with dry corn, therefore you don’t have to be checking and it’s easy to watch this one here and run it, especially at night here where I live. It’s worked out very well.”
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