Convert bushels of corn, wheat, soybeans and 14 other crops to pounds, hundredweight, tons, kilograms and metric tonnes, or back. Add a price to switch between $/bu, $/cwt and $/tonne, and work out moisture shrink and bin capacity.
weight = bushels × standard lb per bushel
| Unit | Amount |
|---|---|
| Bushels | 1,000 |
| Pounds (lb) | 56,000 |
| Hundredweight (cwt, 100 lb) | 560 |
| Short tons (2,000 lb) | 28 |
| Kilograms (kg) | 25,401.17 |
| Metric tonnes (t) | 25.401 |
The US bushel is a dry volume of 2,150.42 cubic inches (35.24 litres), the old Winchester bushel. Nobody measures a truckload of grain by volume, though. Elevators weigh it, then divide by a fixed standard bushel weight for that crop: 56 lb for corn, 60 lb for wheat and soybeans, 32 lb for oats. A "bushel" on a scale ticket is therefore a weight unit, and it means a different weight for every crop.
Canada uses the same bushel weights for most crops, with one notable exception: a Canadian bushel of oats is 34 lb, not 32. Most of the world prices grain per metric tonne, so converting between bushels and tonnes is the core of comparing US and international prices.
| Commodity | lb/bu | kg/bu | bu per tonne | bu per short ton |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corn, shelled | 56 | 25.401 | 39.368 | 35.71 |
| Wheat | 60 | 27.216 | 36.744 | 33.33 |
| Soybeans | 60 | 27.216 | 36.744 | 33.33 |
| Sorghum (milo) | 56 | 25.401 | 39.368 | 35.71 |
| Barley | 48 | 21.772 | 45.93 | 41.67 |
| Oats (US) | 32 | 14.515 | 68.894 | 62.5 |
| Oats (Canada) | 34 | 15.422 | 64.842 | 58.82 |
| Rye | 56 | 25.401 | 39.368 | 35.71 |
| Rice, rough | 45 | 20.412 | 48.992 | 44.44 |
| Buckwheat | 48 | 21.772 | 45.93 | 41.67 |
| Popcorn, shelled | 56 | 25.401 | 39.368 | 35.71 |
| Corn, ear (husked) | 70 | 31.751 | 31.495 | 28.57 |
| Flaxseed | 56 | 25.401 | 39.368 | 35.71 |
| Canola | 50 | 22.68 | 44.092 | 40 |
| Field peas, dry | 60 | 27.216 | 36.744 | 33.33 |
| Lentils | 60 | 27.216 | 36.744 | 33.33 |
| Clover or alfalfa seed | 60 | 27.216 | 36.744 | 33.33 |
Ear corn is counted at 70 lb of ears per bushel, which shells out to about one 56 lb bushel of grain. Sunflower seed and canola are often priced per hundredweight in the US rather than per bushel.
Prices convert the opposite way to quantities. A tonne holds many bushels, so a price per tonne is a bigger number than a price per bushel: multiply $/bu by the bushels in a tonne. Rough rice and sunflower seed are usually quoted per hundredweight (cwt, 100 lb), and feed buyers often quote per short ton.
A grain trailer crosses the elevator scale with 50,000 lb of dry corn (net of the truck). The local cash bid is $4.20/bu. What's it worth, and how does the bid compare with an export quote of $175 per tonne?
Step 1: Pounds to bushels
Step 2: Value at the cash bid
Step 3: Put the bid in $/tonne
The load is 22.68 tonnes, and the export quote is $9.65/t (about 24.5¢/bu) higher. Whether that's worth chasing depends on freight to port, which usually costs more than the gap. Comparing in the same unit is what makes that visible.
Grain is bought at a standard market moisture, typically 15.5% for corn and 13% for soybeans. Wetter grain is weighed, then "shrunk" to the dry-matter weight it would have at market moisture, usually with a small extra handling loss. The water shrink is exact arithmetic: the dry matter doesn't change, only the water does.
942 dry bushels(52,753 lb at 15.5% moisture)
Total shrink 5.8% · water shrink 1.183% per point
Elevators publish their own shrink tables and drying charges, and many use a slightly higher factor than pure water shrink to cover handling and drying loss. Check your elevator's schedule before relying on these numbers for a sale.
Test weight is how much a measured bushel of a particular load actually weighs. It's a quality measure: plump, dry kernels pack more weight into the same volume. Under the US grain standards, No. 1 corn needs a test weight of at least 56 lb/bu and No. 2 at least 54 lb/bu. Lower test weight can mean a lower grade and a discount.
Test weight does not change how bushels are counted. Corn testing 52 lb/bu is still paid on 56 lb per bushel, so 56,000 lb is 1,000 bushels either way. The difference only matters for space: low-test-weight grain takes up more bin and truck volume per paid bushel.
Because a bushel is also a volume, a bin's capacity in bushels comes from its size: one bushel is 1.2445 cubic feet, so multiply cubic feet by 0.8036. For a round bin, the grain volume is π × radius² × grain depth (to the level surface).
Multiply by the crop's bushel weight for pounds: about 289 tonnes of corn here. Grain settles and packs in tall bins, so the true amount is often a few percent more than this level-fill estimate. A peaked top adds a cone: π × r² × peak height ÷ 3.
39.368 bushels. A bushel of corn is 56 lb, or 25.401 kg.
33.33 bushels per 2,000 lb short ton, or 36.744 per metric tonne, at 60 lb per bushel.
Oat kernels keep their hulls and pack loosely, so a bushel of space holds less weight. The US standard is 32 lb, and Canada uses 34 lb.
Divide by the bushels in a tonne. For corn: $180/t ÷ 39.368 = $4.57/bu. For wheat or soybeans, divide by 36.744.
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