Homemade DIY Grain Bins Part 1

 

After several years of buying bagged grain we began buying in bulk from the local feed elevator. This worked great at first. We could save some money and get a large amount of grain all at once. Eventually, this became too tiresome as we grew.

 

The feed from the mill is placed in large plastic woven bags that measure approximately 4x4x4, or so. They hold about 1000-1500 lbs of feed, and get loaded on the back of a truck or trailer. Once we got the bags home the feed would need to be unloaded by buckets into barrels. Then the same feed was unloaded once again every time we fed the chickens or pigs. One barrel at a time.

 

Handling grain twice was the most time consuming and mentally aggravating annoyance of our system. Not to mention having to store tons of barrels. We’re always moving those things around it seems like.

Unfortunately we don’t own a tractor. A tractor would make simple work of lifting the bags with the sewn in tow straps. The bottoms of the bags have a tied opening that can be opened when the bag is held over your bins. Without a tractor though, this wasn’t an option for us.

 

We actually had a tractor for several years, but eventually sold it. The cost to use it was too high as we never needed it. You’d spend a whole day just trying to get it running, got an hour or two worth of work. It’s far cheaper to just rent a neighbor’s tractor when we need to occasional heavy lifting these days.

 

With the move to the new farm we decided it was time for something new. Most notably, with the new farm we now have a barn! This was one of the reasons before for using barrels. We could store barrels outside regardless of the weather. The inside of the new barn needs work though. It floods constantly and one wall needs to be repaired. We needed a solution for grain storage that saves money, time, and energy. It needs to be flexible, and adaptable for the future. It also needs to stay dry. 

 

Our solution?

 

A Movable Homemade DIY Grain Bin!

 

Check out part 2 as we continue the build!