2026 Fall Farm Outlook Lincoln Daily News Oct 2026 Page 19 Grain Storage and Drying Harvest is well underway, and the country roads are filled with tractors, wagons, and semis hauling corn and soybeans. Driving around a Logan County town at this time of year, you'll likely see grain haulers lined up, waiting to deliver corn or beans to the nearest elevator. If you live near an elevator, you can often hear the hum of the dryers on a cool autumn night and see the specks of dust flying. One decision a farmer must make is where to take the grain they have harvested. That decision depends on many factors: fuel cost, elevator storage fees, on-farm capacity, and grain prices at harvest. While driving the combine and grain cart, farmers also calculate yields, maintenance costs, and their strategy for marketing their harvest. While you often see semis and tractors lined up to drop off grain during harvest, storing grain at an elevator costs much more than storing it on the farm, and each option has several variables. For commercial storage at the elevator, you typically pay a one-time delivery fee or “in-charge,” plus monthly storage, drying, and shrinkage fees. The “incharge” ranges from 12-16 cents per bushel, while typical monthly storage fees range from 3 to 8 cents per bushel per month. Drying is the process needed to remove moisture from the grain. Drying fees range from 3 to 6 cents per point of moisture per bushel. The elevator also accounts for shrinkage, which is the loss of grain weight and volume that happens during the drying process. Shrinkage usually carries a fee of 1.4 percent per point of moisture. For example, if a farmer brought 10,000 bushels of corn to an elevator at 18 percent moisture, it would need to be dried down to the standard 15 percent moisture. At an average of 4 cents per point of moisture, drying would cost $1,200. With the “in-charge fee of approximately 15 cents per bushel and 5 cents per bushel for 3 months of storage, the farmer is faced with $4,200 before the shrinkage is factored into the equation. These numbers can make operating on tight margins, as farmers often do, even harder. Elevator fees and dwindling profits are not the only downsides of storing grain at an elevator. During peak harvest, elevators also feel the heat, as they often take on extra help to expedite unloading, however, the influx of grain in the fall leads to long wait times. These wait times can reduce field productivity and increase labor and fuel costs. If the grain
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