5 min read · Updated 5 August 2026
The distinction that costs people money
Grain delivered to a silo has left your farm and still belongs to you. It is not revenue. It is exposure — to the price, and to storage charged by the day.
One column called “gone” is the trap
Most farm spreadsheets track tons off and tons gone. That tells you that you have been paid for grain you still own, and it hides how much storage you are paying for.
The three states a ton can be in
- On the farm — in your own bins or bales.
- At a silo, unsold — yours, on a certificate, accruing storage.
- Sold — money received or receivable, and no longer your price risk.
What is still to sell is tons off, less what you kept back, less what you have sold. That holds whether or not the grain has physically moved, which is what makes it a number you can trust.
Storage is charged by the day, so the date matters
Write the delivery date on every load. The oldest open certificate is where your storage bill started, and a load from June is easy to forget by the time you are selling in October.
Valuing what is unsold
Put a price on it if it helps you plan, but keep it in its own column, apart from money you have actually received. A receipt and an estimate should never be added into one figure — the moment they are, nobody can tell which half is real.
A sheet for the months in between
Where your crop is — free template
Opens in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers. No sign-up.
| Harvest date | Land | Crop | Tons off | Kept back (tons) | Delivered to | Certificate / slip no. | Date delivered | Tons delivered | Date sold | Tons sold | R per ton |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-06-25 | Rivier blok | Witmielies | 77.3 | 0 | Senwes Bothaville | SC-88213 | 2026-06-28 | 30 | 2026-08-05 | 30 | 5 400 |
| 2026-06-25 | Stasie blok | Soja | 91.9 | 4 | — | — | — | 2026-07-14 | 46.8 | 8 900 |
- DELIVERED IS NOT SOLD. Grain at the silo has left the farm and still belongs to you: it is exposure to the price and to storage charged by the day, not money in the bank.
- That is why 'delivered' and 'sold' are separate columns here. A sheet with one 'gone' column tells you that you have been paid for grain you still own.
- What is still to sell = tons off − kept back − tons sold. That works whether or not the grain has moved.
- Value what is unsold at a price YOU choose, and keep it apart from money you have actually received. A receipt and a guess should never be added into one number.
Or keep it without the sheet
FarmBind follows each load from the land to the silo to the sale, keeps delivered and sold apart, and tells you what is still yours to price.
Start freeCommon questions
- Is grain at a silo an asset on my books?
- Generally yes — it is stock you own, held elsewhere. Speak to your accountant about how to carry it and how to treat accrued storage.
- What if I forward-sold before harvest?
- Record the sale when the contract is struck and the tonnage when it is delivered against that contract. The point is that neither event stands in for the other.
- Should I track this per land or per crop?
- Per crop. You sell maize, not a particular block — and a position split across four seasons of the same crop is four numbers you then have to add up yourself.