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How to Calculate the Bushel Capacity of Round Grain Bins

Round grain bins are a familiar sight in many arable farming regions. They store, and sometimes dry, newly harvested grain. Large bins may contain hundreds of tons of grain, a far cry from the medieval version of a large volume of grain, the bushel. Despite being an ancient unit of measure, the bushel is still in use as a measure for grain and, consequently, grain bin capacity is sometimes expressed in bushels.

Things You'll Need

Tape measure

Instructions

- 1
  Determine the volume of the grain bin in cubic feet. Measure the radius and height of the bin, then apply the formula for the volume of a cylinder. The volume of a right cylinder is pi times the square of the radius, multiplied by the height, where pi can be rounded off to 3.1415 and the radius is half the diameter of the bin. For example, if the diameter is 40 feet and the height is 25 feet, the volume is 31,415 cubic feet because 3.1415 x 20^2 x 25 = 31,415.
- 2
  Establish the volume of a bushel of the corn you're measuring. For example, 1 bushel of ear corn occupies 2.5 cubic feet, but 1 bushel of grain occupies 1.25 cubic feet.
- 3
  Divide the volume of the grain bin by the volume of a bushel of the appropriate type of grain. The result is the capacity of the bin expressed in bushels. For example a bin with a capacity of 31,415 cubic feet holds 12,566 bushels of ear corn -- 31,415 / 2.5 = 12,566.

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