How do you store your grains?

My hubby and I are getting our first dairy cow in about a month. We also will have 50 chickens arriving in a week. How do you all store your grains and how much do you purchase a time? We are on a limited budget so are looking for creative, economical solutions. The animals will be mainly pastured Salitin style. Thanks for any help!!!

Hi Kathryn; I raise pigs so the amount of grain I use would be greater than chickens. I buy my grain bulk from the farmer. #3000 lbs at a time in 2 large bulk grain sacks.Buying feed in bulk directly from the farm means I do not get all the extra additives that they like to put in bagged feed , and the price is much cheaper. I keep my extra grain in a three sided shed , that is surrounded with metal roofing & wire . My biggest problems come from the bears who have the dexterity to pull the wire aside. The deer leave it alone and the elk need to be very determined to leap over the fence (but they will). Rodents are the pest that can do the most damage. I have a group of barn cats that live in that area and they seem to keep the mice in check.

I found that the local honey company sells empty 55 gallon metal drums for a few dollars a piece. I order all my feed in 50# bags and keep it in the drums.
As far as how much feed to buy, it will be vary depending on breeds, location and your setup but for reference my 50 meat birds at the end of there cycle were eating almost 15# a day while living in a chicken tractor.

we only buy grain for our chickens and turkeys - but also order organic alfalfa pellets from the same place.
our last order was 2 tons. we have food grade 55g barrels that we then fill from the tote. we can get ~1 ton into (5) 55g drums.

We raise poultry on a small commercial scale, so we go through quite a bit of feed, but not enough to buy in significant bulk. Typically I'll buy as much as I can fit in my pickup--twenty 50-lb. sacks--to spread out the cost of transportation over as many pounds as possible.

We store the bags in the 'feed room' of our barn, which I believe was once the milk processing room before the coming of stricter sanitation laws. I set shipping pallets atop concrete blocks, which allows the cats access underneath the feed sacks to (theoretically, at least) keep the rodents under control.

Last year we toyed with mixing our own poultry ration, buying whole grains, mixing them together in a 30-gallon galvanized trash can (with lid--no rodents) and grinding as needed. With a mix containing corn, wheat, oats, field peas, sunflower seeds, and alfalfa, the trash can would hold right at 200 lbs. The exact amount will of course vary based on feed components, whole versus ground, etc., but 200 lbs. is a good ballpark figure.

For the cows, we feed a mixture of alfalfa pellets, dried molasses, and whole oats while milking. I keep bags of these lined up in the barn's alleyway and just mix up a bucket as needed.

Old dead chest freezers are animal proof and large but shallow enough to lean in and reach the bottom.
That's what we use for dog biscuits too.