Quonset Barn
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Chuck Denney
Shaped for the future. A Quonset-style barn is a domed structure popping up on more and more Tennessee farms.
You won’t find animal stalls here, and there’s no separate loft.
Instead, it holds hay from the ground up.
Howard Arnold
We liked the way it looked. We liked the way the hay kept when it was stored in it.
Chuck Denney
Howard Arnold from Lascassas is one of the mid-state’s biggest forage producers.
He sells two-thirds of his harvest to the public and the rest goes for his cattle.
Of course he needs a place to store all that hay, so a few years ago Arnold made the decision to build the Quonset barn.
Howard Arnold
Zero maintenance to the barn to this point and hopefully forever more. We put down plastic under our gravel here and the bottom rung of hay in this barn is just as good as the top.
Chuck Denney
Mr. Arnold’s barn is a good-sized structure - 100 feet long and about 25 feet tall.
And when it’s full, it holds 468 big round bales.
Arnold cut his last batch of hay almost a year ago, and it still retains its color and smell.
He says that’s because of the air circulation in this barn.
Howard Arnold
The air flow is great. I think that adds to the quality of the hay because it does get a real good flow through here.
Chuck Denney
Barns come in all sizes, shapes and degrees of attractiveness.
But while looks are nice and nostalgic, UT forage expert Dr. Gary Bates says what’s most important is a barn’s effectiveness.
Dr. Gary Bates
One of the most expensive things that a cow-calf producer has to do is get this cows through the wintertime. And probably 75% of that expense is on the hay that’s needed. So anything you can do to cut down how much hay is required.
Chuck Denney
Tennessee hay farmers can also earn money from the state Department of Agriculture.
As part of its new agricultural enhancement program, producers can receive up to $3,500 to build better barns for hay storage.
Here Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Ken Givens.
Ken Givens
The nutrition is extremely important for a number of different reasons. But also the quantity of hay that we can save. Hay production is really an expensive thing.
Chuck Denney
Meantime, Howard Arnold tries to offset that expense with a Quonset barn he believes will last decades.
He’s done nothing to it since tightening the last bolt except put good hay in and take good hay out.
This is Chuck Denney reporting.
END
NOTE: It took a crew of several skilled workers about four days to build the barn.
It has more than 11,000 steel bolts.
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