# hoop barns



## steve IN

I am considering putting up 4 hoop barns to replace barns i rent. Any brands or types that anyone has had experience with would be helpful.I want to use them for hay storage mainly but also equipment and maybe cattle.


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## kfarm_EC_IL

My question is how do you prevent bleaching of hay in this type of light colored building? I would like to put one up for hay storage.
Mark


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## steve IN

The barns I have looked at are dark colored except for a 4 foot wide sky light at top.The ends may discolor a little. I can always feed any discolored hay to my cattle.


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## jhag

Steve,

Have used a "coverall" building for several years. It has the dark green tarp. It seems to be dark enough that there is not too much decoloring. The outside or end bales bleach somewhat, but most buyers I have dealt with realize that the outer bales will always be a little bit lighter on their exposed side.

Jim


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## BCFENCE

Ive also been pricing hoop barns , I have found out ,not counting labor for either one the pole barn can be built a hole lot cheaper, I no i can put up a hoop barn faster, But a pole barn is cheaper as far as material goes, I can also put sheds on both sides to increase storage , That cant be done with a hoop barn, Just my 2 cents.
THOMAS


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## Blue Duck

Last year I put up a Farmtek hoop barn it is a nice building, but for my operation I would never do it again. Four years ago I built an all steel pole barn that works much better for me and was cheaper. It is much easier for me to put square bales in a square building.


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## swmnhay

I see some of the first hoops that were put up in this area have had to have their tarps replaced.They are about 12-15yrs old.And know of a few that tarp blew off or the frame collapsed.JMHO they just are not strong enough for the wind we get HERE.And if you priced out a steel biulding without all the bells and whistles it may even be cheaper.


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## jhag

I've had the suspicion that you could possibly build a pole type shed cheaper. Lately it seems that the price on the hoop type barn has gone up a lot. I think when they first came out , they were a cheap , easy way to get some storage. But once the horse people ( with money) started using them, the price seemed to rise dramatically. A case of charging what the market will bear. I think the same thing happened to ATV's. Once they became a recreational item, the price skyrocketed.

Jim


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## steve IN

Thanks to all who replied. Took some time this week to get bids on pole barns. The hoop barns lose a lot of space by the shape. When you figure labor and the cost of materials for the pony wall the hoop is not so good. I am leaning towards a Morton barn. Price for a 60 by 150 by 16 foot is just over 50,000. Same footage in hoops would be about 30,000 plus poles lumber and labor. You still could not get as much hay in the hoops.


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## mlappin

I've sold the Farmtek/Clearspan buildings for a number of years now. To be perfectly honest I've yet to sell one of the truss arch buildings. For the most part they can get very expensive when compared to a similiar sized pole building.

So far I've had less problems with the hoops than I've had with the pole barns. Of course the newest pole barn is 30 years old and the oldest is 50. On the oldest ones I'm always up on the roof adding roofing screws where the old lead head nails finally gave up.

Since I stack my round bales in a pyramid (7-6-5-4 in the 38's or 8-7-6-4 in the 42's) I actually lose very little space in a hoop building. I will agree that a lot of space would be wasted on large squares.

One thing to take in consideration, in our county at least, the single arch buildings like the 42'x96' s I have are property tax exempt as they are considered a temporary structure.

I have two of the original 38x72's sitting on treated 2x8's with the ground anchors holding them down. One 42'x96' for machinery storage uses the ground anchors while the other is sitting on the 2'x2'x6' concrete blocks. The one that's sitting on the concrete blocks has the roll up sides as well. I had just a little over 14k in the last one including the cement blocks. Both ends are open on this one and I simply stack about 3 rows of what I intend to feed the beefcows in the west end to block the elements from the good hay. Something else to consider is if any of those buildings were build on posts then they would be taxed just like a pole barn.

One last thing to consider, lumber prices are still low at this point in time due to the housing collapse, if people start to build new houses again like they were before the collapse then lumber prices will rise again and the truss arch buildings _might_ be competitive again.

Far as any bleaching goes, when I load hay for the auctions if I have any top bales I make sure the bleached side is showing. Once I get to the auction I simply take a hay probe and pull a little green out of the bleached part so folks can see the bleaching is only skin deep. I also make sure if I have any bottom bales that were sittting on the pallets that a few of them are showing as well. So far a bleached bale or two as well as any bottom bales have never seemed to affect the price. I figure might as well show em so they can see em at the sale as they'll certainly see em once they are unloaded.


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