Business Acquisition (Details Textual) (USD $)	12 Months Ended				12 Months Ended						0 Months Ended	3 Months Ended		3 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2013	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2010	Dec. 31, 2013 Grain	Dec. 31, 2012 Grain		Dec. 31, 2011 Grain	Dec. 31, 2010 Grain	Dec. 09, 2013 Cycle Group, Inc.	Aug. 05, 2013 Mile Rail location	Mar. 31, 2013 Green Plains Grain Company	Dec. 03, 2012 Green Plains Grain Company T bu	Mar. 31, 2012 Green Plains Grain Company Grain	Oct. 30, 2012 Mt Pulaski	May 01, 2012 Amaizing Energy Denison LLC gal bu	Jan. 31, 2012 New Eezy Gro Inc	Oct. 31, 2011 Immokalee Farmers Supply Inc
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Total purchase price										$ 4,232,000	$ 7,804,000		$ 120,232,000		$ 10,683,000	$ 77,400,000	$ 16,777,000
Year to date spending on acquisition of business	15,300,000
Consideration transferred											7,800,000		120,200,000		10,700,000
Number of locations acquired											2
Goodwill	58,554,000	54,387,000	12,545,000	10,141,000	38,165,000	38,165,000		4,990,000	4,207,000		4,167,000		33,175,000		1,985,000		6,681,000
Payable to acquiree outstanding at year end													3,300,000
Combined grain storage capacity (bushels)													32,000,000
Nutrient storage (tons)													12,000
Goodwill, accounting adjustments												3,000,000
Goodwill acquired	4,167,000	41,842,000	1,690,000		0	33,175,000	[1]	0						33,200,000
Capacity of ethanol facility (gallons)																55,000,000
Capacity of grain terminal (bushels)																2,700,000
Ownership interest in consolidated entity (percentage)																85.00%	100.00%
Fair value of noncontrolling interest																6,100,000
Purchase price of business acquired																	16,800,000	3,000,000
Payable for future performance of acquired company																		$ 600,000

[1] (a) The Grain acquisition balance has been revised to include the effect of the adjustments to the purchase price allocation in 2013. Discussed in Note 12. Business Acquisitions