WASHINGTON, DC, US — Off-farm grain storage capacity in the United States reached 11.822 billion bushels as of Dec. 1, 2022, up slightly from 11.817 billion bushels year-over-year, according to a Global Agricultural Information Network report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) of the US Department of Agriculture.

The largest increases were in the states of Missouri, North Carolina and South Dakota, which each added 5 million bushels of capacity. Illinois (1.65 billion bushels), Iowa (1.52 billion), Kansas (1.2 billion), Nebraska (990 million) and Minnesota (820 million) were the top five states in 2022. Together, they account for 52% of US off-farm storage.

Off-farm grain storage capacity includes all elevators, warehouses, terminals, merchant mills, other storage, and oilseed crushers that store whole grains, soybeans, canola, flaxseed, mustard seed, safflower, sunflower, rapeseed, Austrian winter peas, dry edible peas, lentils, and chickpeas/garbanzo beans. 

Capacity data exclude facilities used to store only rice or peanuts, oilseed crushers processing only cottonseed or peanuts, tobacco warehouses, seed warehouses, and storage facilities that handle only dry edible beans, other than chickpeas/garbanzo beans.

The US had 8,068 off-farm storage facilities as of Dec. 1, 2022, down 2% from 2021. Iowa has the largest number of facilities with 840, followed by Illinois (810), Kansas (690), Minnesota (500) and Nebraska (485).