1. The grain
2. Costs of waiting
3. Later prices to compare
Each row is a later cash price you could lock in: a forward contract, a deferred bid, or your own forecast. Up to six.
| Label | Months stored | Cash price ($/bu) |
|---|
Fill in the numbers, then click Compare.
Result
| Option | Price | Bushels sold | Costs of waiting | Net | vs selling now | Break-even price | Annual return |
|---|
How it is built
Shrink: grain dried from moisture M to target T keeps (100 - M) / (100 - T) of its weight. Handling shrink and monthly bin loss come off the bushels you can sell.
Costs: drying points times your rate, storage per bushel per month on the bushels in the bin, and interest at your rate on what selling at harvest would have paid you, for as long as you wait.
Break-even: the later price at which storing nets exactly what selling now nets. The test suite recomputes it for hundreds of random farms and checks that paying that price ties to the cent.
Common questions
Should I sell my corn at harvest or store it?
Compare what you net today against what you net at a later price after every cost of waiting: drying, shrink, storage, interest on the money you do not receive, and quality loss in the bin. Storing wins only when the later price beats the break-even price this tool computes, not merely when it is higher than the harvest price.
How much does water shrink cost when drying corn?
Corn dried from 20% to 15% moisture loses (20 - 15) / (100 - 15) = 5.88% of its weight, about 1.18% per point. Drying also costs fuel and electricity, commonly around 3 to 5 cents per bushel per point. Enter your own rate.
What is the break-even price for storing grain?
It is the later cash price at which storing and selling at harvest net the same money. Take what you would clear selling today, add drying, storage and interest costs, and divide by the bushels you will actually have left to sell. Any later price above it makes storage profitable.
Does this include basis and futures?
You enter the later cash price you could lock in, from a forward contract, a basis contract or your own forecast of futures plus basis. The tool does not fetch market data or predict prices.
Is my farm data uploaded?
No. Everything is calculated in your browser, there are no accounts, and nothing is sent to a server. Use Save to download a scenario file.
Is this marketing or financial advice?
No. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type. Grain prices move, and storing carries price, quality and counterparty risk that a break-even cannot remove. Talk to your marketing adviser, lender or tax professional.