# What do you use for grain storage? Best storage option for goat feed??



## Buck Naked Boers (Oct 15, 2012)

Hi! I know some people use buckets or garbage cans for storage of grain....what is the best way to store grain that keeps it safe from the goats?


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## Goats Rock (Jun 20, 2011)

I use metal trash cans, on a 2x4 frame (keeps it off the floor) with tight fitting lids and 
adjustable straps (tie down straps) to make sure no bad goat can get the lid off. 
Some people use plastic bins.


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## Hodgson (Jan 7, 2014)

Right now I've got 40 bushel tote bags of oats in the shop but I'm planning on getting a hopper bottom bin.


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## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

I have a 55 gallon metal drum with a lid that someone gave me that I use. I wish I knew where they got it - I would love to have a couple more. When we were on the ranch, we stored grain in an old chest type freezer. People also use plastic or metal garbage cans with a lid. If it gets hot where you live I do not recommend storing 'wet'(molasses) feed in them, though, because the feed tends to mold if the lid is on it.


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## HerdQueen (Oct 15, 2012)

I keep my grain in plastic storage bins that have hinged lids. Those are stored in my milking palor with a door. BUT swelling in the door made it not close for a couple weeks. And they figured it out. Goats are to smart for their own good. So lock and key is the safest way to store your grain...


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## J.O.Y. Farm (Jan 10, 2012)

I use metal garbage bins too... No way my goats can get into them as the lids fit real tight.


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## NoahEm (Sep 19, 2013)

We used metal trash cans, up off the floor on a pallet. 


Sent from my iPhone using Goat Forum


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

We have wooden boxes. They are actually old show boxes from livestock showing. They have a hinged lid and work great. We also recently picked up a couple FREE wooden boxes with lids from the John Deere dealer (they get combine parts in them). We will have to fill in some spacing between boards, but they should work great. Problem is finding a place to fit them in our barn. I don't have pics on my phone anymore, but I can get them... My goats figured out how to knock over the metal trash cans and pop the lids off.


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## Krahm (Apr 7, 2013)

I use an old dead chest freezer someone gave me. It holds 6 bags of feed, so I can use it for the horse feed, goat feed, beet pulp and flax. It keep the feed organized, and the mice out and livestock out.


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## FarmerJen (Oct 18, 2012)

I use the garage. HAHA. NO WAY the goats are getting to it in there. Though frankly I'm surprised mice haven't found it yet. Guess there's enough neighborhood cats around. We had a rat one year, but once he was gone, I've not seen another. I keep thinking how nice it would be to have it in the goat barn - but I dont have vehicle access to the barn (by barn, I really mean 10x12' shed)... so I'd have to carry it or wheelbarrel it TO the barn... which just sounds like more trouble than it's worth. I'll just keep going to the garage to get the food for the time being. I'm only feeding 3 goats though... so my way wont work for a lot of you!


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## oakshirefarms (Jul 5, 2013)

We also keep our feed in plastic bins on pallet shelves in the 'barn'. We also store the poultry, hog, and rabbit feeds in bins or 55 gallon plastic barrels on the pallet shelves. Along one wall I built shelves to hold hay bales and along the other wall one for straw bales. Our 'barn' is a big old shed [think it's 12'x20' ???] that has a locked door. The goats live off in their own goat barn. None of the animals have wandered in except the occasional chicken lol! We do have to carry our feed out to the animals in their various locations, but we take the needed amount in our feed cans. It's just the way we have done it so it isn't an issue as far as the extra work, since we can unload right at the 'barn'. In the beginning, we used to store feed at each of their locations in plastic garbage cans with locked lids, but critters started chewing through the cans or knocking them over and also it added the potential of drawing predators. That's when we repurposed the 'barn' and haven't had an issue since [been a few years now].


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

I store my feed in...Okay, now don't laugh too hard...The parts car for my Isuzu Trooper. It holds 2 months worth of feed plus 4 bales of hay. Mouse/rat proof, dry, livestock proof, and convenient.


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## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

Jill, I'm not sure what a 'parts car' is, but I support what works and I'm not about to laugh at you for doing it.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

A parts car is an identical car for robbing parts off of. So if you dent a door, bend a hinge, break a window, need a transmission, etc. It's sitting there waiting.


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## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

Ok, I understand now. I've never heard it called that before.


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## Buck Naked Boers (Oct 15, 2012)

Thank you all for letting me know what works for you for storing grain. I really appreciate it! We have a 'tack rm' that was built into our barn with a tight regular door, no windows. So I am thinking if I have a metal garb can I put the grain bags in that will work. Thank you so much! tami


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## krinda (Sep 26, 2016)

I am using a metal trash can and am getting what looks like maggots in it. any suggestions or advise on why? Thanks


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## Goats Rock (Jun 20, 2011)

The can may be sweating and the flies are laying eggs in it. Empty it out and clean it good. Make sure you empty it frequently and keep it off the ground so air can circulate under it. Have a really tight fitting lid on it.


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## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

I have used plastic garbage bins for years. I keep them on my back porch, so no goat or horse can get anywhere near it. However, I am in the process of moving everything out onto the cement pad of what used to be my goat barn before the arsonist destroyed it. I want to put the goat grain in an old freezer. I mix several grains/feeds together, so instead of mixing every feeding, I can mix it once and just scoop out enough for each feeding time. I will make a temp structure over it with pallets and a tarp. (won't have to worry about a building permit) 

My barn is a bit wet at times, so I don't want to keep the feed down there. Having the goats or horses get loose and in the grain is another concern, so up by my house on the pad is a decent place for now. I hope! At least it will cut down on the rodents who are invading my house because of the grain.


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## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

Goathiker, I use my Subaru Outback, that I am driving!, to store extra feed in. I drive around for several days with it in the back, until I need it. I have almost no storage space for extras, but hate running to the grain store several times a week. So, my car is a good storage area! Hopefully the freezer under the pallet and tarp structure will give me a lot more space for grains.

I used to use my old mini van for storage until it rotted and the town made me get it off my property.


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## Miles2go (Apr 21, 2016)

We use the metal trash can containers from TSC. I do keep their feed in the garage though, not in their pen.


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## SeventeenFarms (Dec 10, 2013)

well....for the goats we keep the bag we are using in a tightly lidded metal trash can, in the garage, so they need the garage door code to get in. so far they haven't cracked the code, but its probably just a matter of time before they do. isnt always just a matter of time with goats? extra grain is stored in the "tack room" of our horse trailer until we are ready to use it. we have well traveled grain! Better yet, our horse food, a specialty food because one has dsld, is stored in what used to be called the foyer of our house, which now looks and smells like a feed store (sorta a good smell)...sometimes 20 bags of this and that. we take it out to the stable as we need it, and there we keep the feeds in lidded metal trash cans up on blocks in the tack room, which is locked. at the rate its going, the hay will be stacked in the living room soon. it will be our new furniture.


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## Nan's lil Sanctuary (10 mo ago)

Krahm said:


> I use an old dead chest freezer someone gave me. It holds 6 bags of feed, so I can use it for the horse feed, goat feed, beet pulp and flax. It keep the feed organized, and the mice out and livestock out.


Does it ever build up condensation?


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## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

Update on mine post from 2016. I still have barrels in my back porch, plastic and metal, with totes for dog food and chicken feed. I have a deceased chest freezer in my barn wedged between one of the buck stalls and the milk stand for the pellets I feed either the dry kids or the milkers, depending on what time of year it is. I have a hasp with a snap screwed onto it to keep goats and horses out of it in case they get loose.

2 plastic barrels hold the kid pellets and the horse feed. A metal barrel holds the beet pulp shreds, an aluminum barrel holds the alfalfa pellets. Another plastic container holds the milkers pellets right now, but will become the dry does/bucks pellets when I have more than 2 active milkers this spring, then the milkers pellets go to the barn in the freezer chest. I store the spent brewers grain in 5 gallon plastic buckets. Supplements get stacked on the shelf above the milk stand if used daily or every other day, while the other ones get stashed in a feed barrel in the back porch.

All other goat/horse supplies (meds, bottle feeding stuff, syringes/needles, disbudding irons, banders/banding supplies, collars etc) are in totes in my kitchen and living room, while the meds that need to be refrigerated are in my kitchen fridge, but soon to be moved to their own smaller fridge I just bought yesterday. I am stocking up on antibiotics and some need to be kept refrigerated.

I wish I had more room for storage, where I could have everything in one place. SOmeday I will, I just need to build more goat houses to shelter the ones not kept in the milkers/buck barn.


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## friesian49 (Jul 2, 2018)

I have garbage cans for the grain. This summer has been atrocious with humidity and I finally moved it up to the garage, as the hay shed where it was, would get those small bugs in it and no one should or would eat it. I have a dehumidifer in the garage, so now I just have a row of garbage cans - chicken scratch, goat grain, and BOSS. 

Crazy thing - not all trash cans are equal! I have this lovely one, I think it's a Brute? I got it at Home Depot and it's tough, but the lid just seems to be more sealed than the other ones I have. Went back for another Brute and couldn't find any.


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