Notes Payable and Long-Term Debt - Footnote Narrative (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended
Nov. 30, 2016	Aug. 31, 2016
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Notes payable	$ 3,227,564	$ 2,731,479
Notes payable
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Notes payable	2,315,412	1,803,174
CHS Capital notes payable
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Notes payable	912,152	$ 928,305
Five-Year Revolving Facilities [Member] \| Line of Credit [Member] \| Revolving credit facility
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Line of Credit Facility, Current Borrowing Capacity	$ 3,000,000
Debt Instrument, Term	5 years

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

No definition available.

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- Definition

Period of time between issuance and maturity of debt instrument, in PnYnMnDTnHnMnS' format, for example, 'P1Y5M13D' represents the reported fact of one year, five months, and thirteen days.

+ References

No definition available.

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- Definition

Amount of current borrowing capacity under the credit facility considering any current restrictions on the amount that could be borrowed (for example, borrowings may be limited by the amount of current assets), but without considering any amounts currently outstanding under the facility.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 210
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.5-02.19(b),22(b))
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6877327&loc=d3e13212-122682

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- Definition

Amount of borrowings from a bank classified as other, maturing within one year or operating cycle, if longer.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 944
-SubTopic 210
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.7-03.16)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6879938&loc=d3e572229-122910

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 210
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.5-02.19(a)(1))
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6877327&loc=d3e13212-122682

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