Uses standard US weights per bushel. Actual test weights vary with moisture and quality.
Standard bushel weights
The bushel started as a volume measure - roughly 2,150 cubic inches - but nobody at an elevator scoops grain by volume. Each crop has a legal standard weight that converts the volume to pounds:
- Corn: 56 pounds per bushel
- Soybeans: 60 pounds per bushel
- Wheat: 60 pounds per bushel
- Sorghum (milo): 56 pounds per bushel
- Barley: 48 pounds per bushel
- Oats: 32 pounds per bushel
These are the US standard weights used in trade. Actual test weight on a delivered load can run heavier or lighter depending on moisture and quality, and elevators discount or reject loads that fall outside grade tolerances.
Converting bushels, pounds, and tons
The math is simple once you know the weight. Bushels to pounds: multiply by the pounds per bushel. Pounds to short tons: divide by 2,000. Going the other way, tons to bushels: multiply tons by 2,000, then divide by the bushel weight. A 100-short-ton soybean meal contract is a different animal - meal trades by the ton, while the beans it came from trade by the bushel, which is exactly why processors keep this conversion close at hand.
One futures contract of corn, soybeans, or wheat covers 5,000 bushels. That is 280,000 pounds (140 short tons) of corn, or 300,000 pounds (150 short tons) of beans or wheat - handy numbers when you are sizing a hedge against bin contents or a delivery contract.
Why weights matter in hedging
Hedgers match futures contracts to physical production, and production is often recorded in one unit while the position is sized in another. A farmer delivering corn to an ethanol plant may settle in tons; the hedge is in bushels. Getting the conversion wrong means being over- or under-hedged by a real percentage. We help producers size hedges against actual bushels every season, and getting the unit math right is the unglamorous first step.