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Dry Volume Converter

Measurement

Convert dry volume units: US and Imperial bushels, pecks, dry quarts, and pints. Essential for agriculture, grain measurement, and commodity trade.

Reviewed by the thecalcu.com team · Last updated August 1, 2026

From
To
All conversionsfor 1 Bushel (US)
Litre (L)35.23907
Millilitre (mL)35239.07
Cubic Metre (m³)0.03523907
Bushel (US)1
Peck (US)3.9999998
Dry Gallon (US)7.9999995
Dry Quart (US)31.999998
Dry Pint (US)63.999996
Bushel (Imperial)0.96893897
Peck (Imperial)3.8757559
Quart (Imperial)31.006033
Pint (Imperial)62.012121
Cubic Inch (in³)2150.42
Cubic Foot (ft³)1.2444559

What is a Dry Volume?

A dry volume converter converts between units used specifically to measure dry goods, grains, pulses, cereals, seeds, and agricultural commodities. The Dry Volume Converter covers US dry units (bushel, peck, dry gallon, dry quart, dry pint), Imperial units (bushel, peck, quart, pint), and metric equivalents (litres, millilitres, cubic metres) in a single tool.

The need for separate dry volume units arises from the US customary measurement system, which defines dry and liquid volumes differently. A US dry quart (1.101 L) is not the same as a US liquid quart (0.946 L), and conflating the two leads to significant errors in agricultural calculations. The Imperial system does not make this distinction, its bushel and peck are used for both dry and liquid goods, which adds to the confusion when working across standards.

For Indian traders and agricultural businesses, this converter is particularly useful when dealing with international commodity markets. Major grain exchanges, including the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), quote prices in US dollars per US bushel, while Indian standards use kilograms and metric tonnes. Understanding the volumetric equivalent helps in logistics planning, storage capacity estimation, and price benchmarking for wheat, rice, soybeans, and other bulk commodities.

This tool covers 14 units across Metric, US Dry, Imperial, and US Customary groups. Use it alongside our Volume Converter for liquid measures, and our Weight Converter when converting grain volume to mass.

Why Use a Dry Volume Converter?

Dry volume units appear in agricultural contracts, commodity trading, and food manufacturing specifications, contexts where accuracy directly affects cost and compliance. The conversion multipliers between these systems are far from intuitive: one US bushel is 35.239 litres, one Imperial peck is 9.092 litres, and the ratio between US dry and liquid measures varies by unit.

Two practical Indian use cases:

  1. Commodity import/export: A Mumbai-based grain importer purchasing US wheat at a price per bushel needs to convert the contracted volume to metric tonnes for customs declarations. Starting from bushels → litres → kilograms (using the grain's density) is the standard workflow.

  2. Agricultural equipment specifications: US-manufactured grain bins and harvesting equipment often list capacity in bushels. Converting to litres or cubic metres helps Indian farmers and co-operatives evaluate equipment fit for local storage requirements.

Trying to do these conversions mentally or with a general calculator risks compounding small errors, especially when distinguishing US dry vs liquid vs Imperial variants of the same unit names.

Who Should Use This Converter?

Commodity traders and exporters who deal in wheat, soybeans, corn, or barley priced in US bushels need quick conversion to metric for shipping documents, warehouse receipts, and regulatory filings.

Agricultural equipment buyers evaluating grain bins, combine harvesters, and silo systems specified in bushels or cubic feet benefit from instant metric equivalents to match local storage needs.

Food manufacturers and millers working with recipes or production specifications from US or UK sources will encounter dry pints, dry quarts, and pecks in ingredient volumes, units this converter handles precisely.

Import-export documentation teams who need to convert between commodity standards for bills of lading, phytosanitary certificates, and customs valuation.

Students and researchers in agronomy, food science, or agricultural economics studying international trade data or historical records where older unit systems appear frequently.

For cooking and kitchen measures, the Cooking Converter covers teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups alongside metric equivalents.

What Insights Does the Dry Volume Converter Give You?

The converted value output tells you exactly how much of your target unit equals your input, useful for single-step conversions like "how many litres in 50 bushels" (answer: 1,761.95 L).

The reference table displayed below the converter shows your input quantity expressed in all 14 units simultaneously. This is particularly valuable when you need to communicate the same volume to parties using different standards, for instance, specifying a grain shipment in US bushels for the buyer, litres for the shipping container manifest, and cubic feet for the warehouse receipt.

A useful interpretive guide: 1 US bushel is roughly the volume of a large kitchen pot (35 L), while a US peck is about the size of a large shopping bag (8.8 L). A standard 40-foot shipping container holds approximately 67,000 litres, or about 1,900 US bushels of wheat.

How to use this Dry Volume calculator

  1. Open the converter, it loads with Bushel (US) selected as the FROM unit and Litre as the TO unit by default.
  2. Select your source unit from the FROM dropdown. Units are grouped by system: Metric, US Dry, Imperial, and US Customary.
  3. Type your quantity into the input field. Results update instantly as you type.
  4. Select your target unit from the TO dropdown to see the converted value.
  5. Use the ⇅ swap button between the two panels to reverse the conversion direction, useful when working backwards from a target volume.
  6. Scroll down to the reference table to see your quantity expressed in all available units at once.
  7. For grain trading calculations, note that this converter gives volume only, use our Weight Converter alongside a grain density table to convert volume to mass.

Formula & Methodology

This is a linear converter using the litre as the common base unit. All conversions follow:

Result = Input × (toBase_from ÷ toBase_to)

Key toBase values (litres):

| Unit | Litres |
|---|---|
| Litre (L) | 1 |
| Cubic Metre (m³) | 1000 |
| Bushel (US) | 35.23907 |
| Peck (US) | 8.809768 |
| Dry Gallon (US) | 4.404884 |
| Dry Quart (US) | 1.101221 |
| Dry Pint (US) | 0.5506105 |
| Bushel (Imperial) | 36.36872 |
| Peck (Imperial) | 9.09218 |
| Quart (Imperial) | 1.136523 |
| Pint (Imperial) | 0.568261 |
| Cubic Inch (in³) | 0.016387064 |
| Cubic Foot (ft³) | 28.31685 |

Worked example, Indian grain import scenario:
A trader contracts 500 US bushels of wheat. How many litres is this?

500 × 35.23907 = 17,619.54 litres

How many Imperial bushels is the same quantity?

17,619.54 ÷ 36.36872 = 484.46 Imperial bushels

Conversion reference table:

| US Bushels | Litres | Imperial Bushels | Cubic Feet |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 35.24 | 0.969 | 1.244 |
| 10 | 352.39 | 9.686 | 12.445 |
| 100 | 3,523.91 | 96.86 | 124.45 |

The US bushel is defined as exactly 2150.42 cubic inches per the United States Code. The Imperial bushel is defined as 8 Imperial gallons = 36.36872 litres per the UK Weights and Measures Act. All values in this converter are derived from these exact statutory definitions.

Frequently Asked Questions

A dry volume converter is a tool that converts between units specifically used to measure dry goods such as grains, pulses, cereals, and agricultural commodities. Unlike liquid volume units, dry volume units like bushels, pecks, and dry quarts are defined separately in the US customary system because dry goods do not conform perfectly to container shapes. This converter handles both US dry units and Imperial units alongside metric equivalents.
A US dry gallon equals approximately 4.405 litres, while a US liquid gallon equals 3.785 litres, making the dry gallon about 16.4% larger. The difference exists because the US customary system historically defined dry and liquid measures separately based on different reference standards. When measuring grain, flour, or other dry commodities, always use dry volume units rather than liquid volume units to get accurate results.
One US bushel equals exactly 35.239 litres. The US bushel is defined as 2150.42 cubic inches, and this is the standard unit used for trading major agricultural commodities like wheat, soybeans, corn, and barley in US and international markets. For Imperial bushels used in the UK, the equivalent is 36.369 litres.
A peck is a unit of dry volume equal to one-quarter of a bushel. One US peck equals approximately 8.81 litres, while an Imperial peck equals approximately 9.09 litres. Pecks were historically common in everyday trade for fruits, vegetables, and grain but are now mainly used in agricultural commerce and traditional recipes in the United States and United Kingdom. The phrase 'a peck of pickled peppers' from the English nursery rhyme refers to this unit.
India typically measures grain by weight in kilograms and metric tonnes rather than by volume. However, for international commodity trading, particularly when importing or exporting wheat, rice, and soybeans, Indian traders must convert between metric tonnes and US bushels, since major grain exchanges like the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) quote prices in US dollars per bushel. This converter helps bridge that gap between Indian metric standards and international agricultural units.
To convert US bushels to litres, multiply the number of bushels by 35.239. For example, 10 US bushels equals 352.39 litres. The formula is: Litres = Bushels × 35.239. This converter handles the calculation automatically, simply select Bushel (US) as the FROM unit and Litre as the TO unit, enter the value, and the result appears instantly.
There are 64 US dry pints in one US bushel. The hierarchy goes: 1 bushel = 4 pecks = 8 dry gallons = 32 dry quarts = 64 dry pints. For Imperial measures, 1 Imperial bushel also contains 64 Imperial pints. This nested relationship makes it straightforward to convert between any two US dry units without needing to pass through metric equivalents.
A US bushel equals 35.239 litres while an Imperial (UK) bushel equals 36.369 litres, a difference of about 3.1%. The divergence arose because the UK and US standardised their bushel definitions differently after American independence. For international grain trading, the US bushel is the de facto standard on most global commodity exchanges, though UK and Commonwealth countries may still reference the Imperial bushel for domestic agricultural use.
Select your source unit from the FROM dropdown, for example, Bushel (US). Enter the quantity in the input field. Then select your target unit from the TO dropdown, for example, Litre. The converted result appears immediately below. Use the ⇅ swap button to reverse the conversion direction. The reference table at the bottom shows the entered value converted into all available units at once, which is helpful when you need to compare across multiple systems.
Dry volume units persist in agriculture because they were historically easier to measure in the field, filling a standardised container is simpler than weighing on a scale when dealing with bulk grain. Additionally, commodity contracts and pricing systems established centuries ago remain in use on major exchanges, and changing the unit basis would require rewriting thousands of contracts and price benchmarks. Weight measurement (bushels-to-tonnes conversion) is used alongside volume for precise quality-adjusted commodity pricing.
One US bushel equals approximately 1.2445 cubic feet, or equivalently 2150.42 cubic inches. This relationship is useful when calculating grain bin storage capacity, which is typically expressed in cubic feet in the United States. To find how many bushels fit in a grain bin, divide the bin's total cubic footage by 1.2445.
For linear dry volume conversions, the formula is: Result = Input × (toBase_from ÷ toBase_to), where toBase values are each unit's equivalent in litres. For example, to convert 5 US bushels to Imperial pecks: 5 × 35.23907 ÷ 9.09218 ≈ 19.35 Imperial pecks. All units in this converter use the litre as the common base, making any unit-to-unit conversion a single multiplication and division step.
Also known as
cup to pintquart to gallondry measure converterbushel to litredry volume unit conversioncups to quartspint to quartgallon to busheldry ingredient measurement converterpeck to bushel