Working Ranch April/May 2025

that’s an improvement BY ADDIE BROWN We can thank our pioneering ancestors for the concept of prefabricated barns. (Raising the last half of a gable end panel into place. Southeast Missouri Farms Project. LC-USF33-011535-M5 Library of Congress)

Raise the Roof Considerations when assembling your prefabricated barn.

hen I think of the concept of prefabricated barns, it reminds me of how our nation’s pioneers accomplished such a task as building a barn. When it’s time to assemble your prefab ricated barn, it’s almost like a modern-day ‘barn raisin.’

a traditional barn is that the prefab barn is designed and manufactured in a factory and then delivered with instructions to reassemble once on-site. A traditional barn is built from scratch on-site. A major advantage of prefabricated barns is cost without sacrificing quality. Any kind of barn you could imagine can be ordered as prefabricated such as a backyard tool shed, hay barn, or 40-plus-stall horse barn. Some companies will even do fully custom-designed barns. Because of the wide variety of barns that can be designed and ordered as prefabricated, they can be utilized in many ways at the headquarters or in closer proximity to your house for personal use. Wayne Fahsholtz, a past president and CEO of the Padlock Ranch in Ranchester, Wyoming, and founder of AgWin Group LLC, had a positive experience with his pre fabricated barn that he ordered for personal use to house equipment.

amount of manual labor to construct the barn. It was sacrificial labor for all involved as they would surely have to halt their own homestead duties to lend a helping hand to their neighbor. If it sounds like I just described Seven Brides for Seven Brothers , that isn’t as far-fetched as it seems, and no doubt the movie romanticized homestead life and barn raisings. But it is easy to see how something so simple to us as a new barn going up would be so foun dational in the rural communities of young America. QUALITY The main difference between assembling a prefabricated barn and

Barn raisings were a common and integral part of colonial American life. If a man needed a barn built, local farmers and ranchers would gather at the homestead and help him build the barn. Often, they first would build the different sides of the barn lying flat on the ground. After that, they then would raise the walls and finish foundational construction to ensure everything was secure. A well-orga nized barn raising would only take a few days. After the barn was up and finished the ladies would provide a meal, and they would celebrate with a barn dance. Even though they would have a fully functional barn within a few days, it still took a tremendous

22 I APRIL / MAY 2025 WORKING RANCH audited readers run 21 million head of beef cattle.