When planning your farm design, don’t neglect one of the most important features of your facility: storage. Hay and feed storage barns may be one of the less glamorous parts of your dream farm, but storage is just as crucial as stalls and a riding arena. After all, farm owners know that cleaning supplies, pasture maintenance equipment, riding equipment, and feed can be ever-expanding, and they need a permanent place to live. Depending on the size of your operation, it may be just fine to designate an area in your existing barn to store such items. But for most farm owners, creating a separate storage building will allow you to maintain maximum functionality in your barn. In fact, barns that incorporate loft-style storage solutions rather than a separate storage building actually create a substantial fire hazard. Hay and feed storage barns are the best way to reduce your risk.

How To Build A Prefabricated Hay Barn or Feed Storage Barn

For feed and hay storage, you’ll want to create a dry environment to keep your supplies safe from rain, snow, and other natural elements. This truly is the only thing that all hay and feed barns must have in common – otherwise, your structure can be designed to your specific operational needs. For feed rooms, all the walls, corners, and doors should create a tight seal to protect feed from moisture, pests, and potential break-ins from a hungry horse. Smooth concrete is your best choice for feed room flooring. In dry climates, feed bags can live on the floor. However, in more rain-prone areas, feed should be stacked high, 4-6 inches higher than the main barn floor in case of flooding. To store equipment, your storage barn should be customized with entryways at least four feet wide to move substantial equipment in and out with ease. A building with large open spaces unencumbered by columns will allow you to easily move and store large maintenance equipment wherever you see fit.

Why choose prefabricated steel for feed storage?

1. Steel is the most effective material for creating a tight seal that won’t settle over time. It’s all made possible by the unbeatable strength of steel, providing durability without columns breaking up the interior space of your storage facility. This is a long-term, highly customizable storage solution that you can trust to protect not only your feed, but other potentially expensive maintenance equipment.
2. By using man-made materials rather than their organic alternatives, you’re building a structure that is naturally resistant to moisture, mold, bacteria, and pests. Not only are you creating that tight seal to keep pests out, but no termite, mouse, carpenter ant, or anything in between is strong enough to snack on steel.
3. Customizing your prefabricated metal feed storage building with ventilation systems will limit your dry matter loss.
4. Steel is a durable building material that is built to withstand the test of time with minimal maintenance. You’ll save money on pest control treatments and material replacement in the long term.
5. And in the short term, prefabricated steel is a cost-effective solution with a very short erection timeline. Even with customizations, your building can be up and running faster thanks to bolt-together technology. All of your members and components are built offsite and delivered to you wholly prefabricated and pre-drilled.

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