The decision to feed commodities must be tailored to your farm and your needs. It's important to develop a budget with costs estimated to your farm situation. While it appears that commodity feeding may pay, let's look at what it costs. In the Pacific Northwest, it's most common to store bulk feeds in pole or frame-type buildings with floor bins. The entire floor is concrete, including a wide apron at the open side of the building for unloading feeds.
Some operations also have a few metal grain tanks or bins for storage.
While a few operators have bins 12 feet wide, a minimum 14-foot width allows easier loading and unloading of floor bins. Most operators found they need more bins than the number of ingredients in their grain mix. This allows room for storing their premixed grain, an extra load of a feed at a good price, or a fresh load of feed while they use the remainder of an older load. If a dairy farmer chooses to premix commodities for a week's feeding and has 5 or 6 feeds in storage, he or she would probably need 7 or 8 bins. If feeds are mixed daily in the wagon prior to feeding, one less bin would be required.