![]() ![]() Touring different types of barns and asking questions is one of the most valuable steps you can take to select the right barn. “I am a proponent of a 16- to 18-foot eave height, regardless of barn type.” Gables and monoslopes “The goal is always to make the barn wider and taller, because you have more volume of air to transfer air quality,” says Anderson. Ventilation considerations rise to the top for any viable cattle confinement scenario. If you can answer that, Anderson says, you’ll land on the barn that works best for you. What’s the first step? Understand the needs of the farm and livestock, and know the purpose of the barn. This floor is made of concrete or rubber with openings for waste that drain into a pit underneath the barn. ![]() This floor uses traditional bedding, like straw or cornstalks, on a concrete or dirt floor. ![]() “The right barn is going to change your management style, and you’ll become more efficient, not only with the cattle but with your time management.”Īnderson says each building has two flooring options:īedded pack. “All of these buildings maximize cow comfort, feed efficiency and worker comfort,” Anderson says. This Quonset-shaped structure is constructed of a tarp or canvas roof and steel arches. This steel-and-wood structure has two equivalent sides sloping upward and meeting in a covered vent, or ridge, in the center for ventilation. Monoslopes are designed to maximize sun exposure for heat in the winter and shade in the summer, with excellent ventilation. In this steel-and-wood structure, one side of the roof is higher than the other to best use sun and air movement. “There’s so much opportunity to feed cattle in the Midwest because of our proximity to resources.”Īnderson says the three most common barn designs are monoslopes, vented gable roof barns and hoop barns. “Producers can utilize lower-cost feed options like ethanol co-products,” he says. Anderson traveled the state helping hundreds of farms do planning and expansion where he observed industry changes in efficiency and cost of production. “The right cattle barn gives you a system to take advantage of alternative feed options,” says Anderson of The Livestock Desk, who previously served as head of the Illinois Livestock Development Group for 17 years. How to make the most of those opportunities? Anderson says the right facilities can make all the difference and help maximize labor, too. And with skyrocketing fertilizer prices, manure is suddenly more valuable. Still, folks like Nic Anderson maintain the state is ripe with opportunity for cattle production heading into 2023, in part due to its proximity to alternative feed sources like ethanol co-products and beef markets. Nationwide, those numbers are only off 20% over the same time period. Over the past several decades, Midwestern pastures were plowed up and converted to rows of green and gold - and in nowhere more than Illinois, where cattle inventories are down 58% from their peak in 1972. Drive the Illinois countryside, and you’ll see a landscape dotted with barns, abandoned feedlots and old silos, remnants of a bygone era. ![]()
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