tarp vs shed

Barn should have been on last post

It holds about 170 ton of round bales.

It saves about 20 ton of hay per year or about $1400 dollars worth.

Its paid for the materials twice in the 12 years we have used it here in wet Iowa.

Only mistake was not building it bigger.

Gary

And I'm sure you have to factor in a lot of short and long term stuff -- your cash flow, how long you plan to be in business, if you would re-sheet or re-shingle a shed yourself, etc.

But what about a compromise, like the link below?

Basically a greenhouse style frame, good tarp over it for a 5-8 year service life. Prep the ground well -- put down tiles, vapor barrier, stone, etc to reduce dampness.

I've seen a couple dairy barns around here that use the greenhouse style.

• Link

Then switching to greenhouse plastic for spring.

Like to build a carriage shed to keep the equipment out of the garage a/k/a workshop and still be out of the weather.

Shed is the way to go if you are doing this for 20 years, plan to always have that much hay.

Tarps wear out too fast, in 20 years you'll have more $$$ in them than in an ecconomically built shed.

--->Paul

The tarp-rite buildings with the metal frame under them are cheap and last about 5-8 years up here before needing a new cover. So a 30 x 90 footer is about 9000$ initially then 2000$ every time a new cover is needed. Hard to do the bay thing for selling hay out of them though.