FARMERS INVEST MILLIONS IN NEW STORAGE CAPACITY FOR CORN AND SOYBEANS

FARMERS INVEST MILLIONS IN NEW STORAGE CAPACITY FOR CORN AND SOYBEANS
Northey says Significant Investment Highlights Farmers Role in Strengthening State’s Economy

DES MOINES –Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey today highlighted a recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Agriculture Statistics Service, that shows Iowa is the national leader in both on-farm and off-farm grain storage capacity.

In 2008, total on-farm grain storage capacity in Iowa increased from 1.85 to 1.95 billion bushels and total off-farm storage capacity increased by 125 million bushels of capacity to a total of 1.33 billion bushels. With the new off-farm storage created in 2008 Iowa moved passed Illinois to become the state with the largest off-farm storage capacity, in addition to remaining the top state in on-farm storage and total grain storage.

As a result 225 million bushel in new grain storage was built in 2008. In addition, these numbers do not include any new facilities built to replace existing capacity, they only count total storage.

“When farmers profit, they invest that money right here in the state, which is a significant benefit to Iowa’s economy,” Northey said. “These facilities represent a significant investment in Iowa.”

Generally, a rough estimates used by farmers is a cost of $2 per bushel to build new on-farm storage facilities, which when multiplied by the 100 million increase in Iowa means at least $200 million was invested by Iowa farmers in 2008. The investment to build off-farm storage is more difficult to estimate, but would likely have been at least $125 million more. As a result, the total new investment was likely in excess of $300 million.

Iowa’s total storage capacity has been expanding since 1999 and now has more than 3.275 billion bushels in capacity.

A chart showing Iowa’s on-farm, off-farm and total storage capacity is available on the Department’s website and www.IowaAgriculture.gov.

More information on this and other reports from the National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS) in Iowa can be found online at www.nass.usda.gov/ia or by contacting Greg Thessen, Director of the Iowa Field Office, at (515) 284-4340.

All reports compiled by NASS are only possible thanks to the cooperation of Iowa farmers and other survey respondents who take the time to provide the data.

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