Store or sell: what holding grain pays
Your elevator’s own later bids, minus storage, interest and shrink, in cents a bushel.
Enter your ZIP to see what holding pays at the elevator nearest you.
Your costs
Using storage at 3.5¢ a month (default), interest at 7% a year (default), no shrink (default).
The detail
Every month this elevator posts
Enter your ZIP.
Other elevators near you
What the board pays to store
Loading futures prices.
Show the math
Net = carry − storage × months − price now × rate × months / 12 − shrink × later price. Carry is the elevator’s later posted bid minus its bid for delivery now, both read from the same board at the same time. A month in next year’s crop is new crop, not storage, and is left out. Bids from the AGSIST elevator network; futures are Yahoo Finance daily closes, not CME settlements. For planning only; call the elevator before you count on a bid.
Common questions
How do I know if storing grain pays?
Take the elevator's posted bid for the later month, subtract its bid for delivery now: that is the carry. Then take off what holding costs you: storage for each month, interest on the money the grain is worth today, and any shrink. If what is left is above zero, storing pays at today's bids. This page does that arithmetic with your elevator's own posted bids.
What storage cost and interest rate does this use?
Unless you enter your own: 3.5 cents a bushel a month for storage, 7% a year interest on the value of the grain, and no shrink. Change any of them and the page remembers your numbers on this device.
Why use my elevator's bids and not the futures spread?
Futures carry is only what you are paid to store if your basis stays the same. Elevators set their own later bids, and their carry can be more or less than the board's. When we cannot read a later bid near you, the page shows the futures carry and says that it assumes your basis does not change.
Why is the answer negative when the later month pays more?
Because carry has to cover more than bin rent. At a $4.80 corn price, 7% interest costs about 2.8 cents a bushel a month on top of 3.5 cents of storage, so a carry has to beat roughly 6.3 cents a month to pay. A flat storage cost with no interest makes storing look better than it is.