| Buildings
RIDBA publishes Third Edition of the Farm Buildings Handbook The third edition of The Farm Buildings Handbook has now been released. he Farm Buildings Handbook is published by the Rural & Industrial Design & Building Association (RIDBA) and is an invaluable information source for anyone involved in farm construction. The third edition of the Handbook supersedes the second edition published in February 2013. The latest edition includes updates and additional items, in order to better reflect current best practice and changes in technology. We recommend this book to farmers, estate managers, contractors, designers and anyone involved in agricultural construction who may not have the complete knowledge of the requirements involved, for example, how much space to allow livestock and how much waste stock produces. The book offers the reader a range of relevant information and data that can be used to help plan, design and potentially specify a new farm building or facility. The latest edition of the Farm Buildings Handbook covers all
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aspects of farm construction, from planning through to fit-out of all types of buildings, with sections including: legislation and regulations, construction technology, buildings for livestock, storage and machinery as well as other areas for diversification. The book aims to be a guide for what needs to be considered when planning a farm building from asbestos and the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (CDM) to energy supplies and slurry storage. RIDBA would like to acknowledge the original contributors of The Farm Buildings Handbook along with Jamie Robertson (Livestock Management Systems Ltd) and Mike Bennett (Bennett & Co. (Crop Storage Engineering) Ltd) for their contribution to the latest edition. RIDBA also extends its thanks to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) whose contribution has been invaluable. Copies of The Farm Buildings Handbook can be purchased on the RIDBA website for £14.99 (plus postage).
What could be simpler than a By Jim Rogerson of FarmPlus Buildings. here’s nothing simpler than a farm building, yet why do the majority of people get this wrong? Sure farm buildings are simple, everyone can do a simple basic building, and we probably all can and do. The biggest problem with getting a good job done comes down to a bit of time and money. In this instance time should play the biggest role, because if you are controlling the job yourself then you probably aren’t paying yourself anyway. So if you spend extra time getting it right, it probably doesn’t cost you anything. Yet the benefits can be far reaching. Simple mistakes can be made, especially late in the year: “We are desperate to get some cows undercover”. “I need the cheapest option to get some cattle off the land”. “We have a gap here close to the house, its wasted space, we might as well use it for now, and we’ll use it as a garage/workshop later”. Yet mostly, once cattle go into a building, it is very difficult to turn the building back to anything other than cattle housing. Did you stop and think is it in the right place to get rid of all the muck? Does the ground slope away from or to the house? Water runs downhill naturally, so
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22 | Farming Monthly | December 2019
does dirty water and muck.... With this adage in mind and a bit of thought, a simple well designed farmyard will help to wash itself with every bit of rain. To put it simply, if you can keep the farmhouse and yard at the top end and direct all the muck to the low end, cleaning will be a lot simpler and life a lot more pleasant with a lot less ear-ache from the housekeeper! Just because you wear wellington boots to walk through the cattle field and gateways, it doesn’t mean it’s alright to need them around the farmyard. When you are designing your building make sure you know what you really want and design it for the real use. £2,000.00 goes nowhere with vets bills, antibiotics and loss of growth rate or even lost/dead animals. All too often these factors are just put down to a fact of life, especially on a farm, just by buying/using the cheapest options at the beginning. Very few open sided buildings work well for animal housing as far as ventilation and air exchange work and people say to me, “oh it will be alright with one side open”. After buying a smoke machine some 5 years ago and testing buildings I can assure you they don’t work. They may work reasonably well on a cold, wet, windy day when all of us are glad of shelter but if you get a good spring day with the sun shining, with a bit
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