Barsness Dairy
Challenge – Onsite protection from the elements for hay and equipment
Solution – Hercules Truss Arch Building
Size – 65′ wide x 150′ long
Application – Storage for hay and farm equipment
Peder and Susan Barsness own and operate a 140 cow dairy farm located in Starbuck, MN. At Barsness Dairy, Peder and Susan raise their own corn and forage on 450 acres of land. Since they are able to produce all of their own hay with their own equipment, they needed plenty of space to store the finished hay, as well as to protect their valuable equipment during inclement weather.
The Barsnesses had been renting indoor space to keep their hay dry or covering it with tarps. All of their extra equipment had to sit outside because there was no space for it. Susan explains, “It cost us a lot of extra time and money hauling the hay back to our farm for winter feeding. Also, keeping our farm equipment outdoors resulted in a cluttered yard and was hard on the equipment.” It was clear that the Barsnesses needed storage space of their own, and they found it one day flipping through a catalog.
After receiving a catalog in the mail from one of ClearSpan’s affiliate companies, the Barsnesses realized a Hercules Truss Arch Building was a perfect solution to their problem. Since Barsness Dairy is located on a big hill, expansion options were limited. Susan notes, “The hoop-style ClearSpan buildings allowed us to store more hay and equipment than a traditional post and frame building of the same size.”
The Barsnesses decided on a ClearSpan building for many reasons. Explains Susan, “ClearSpan was easy to work with, had lots of options and provided us with a quality product and a warranty to back it up. They offered us customer service!” She continues, “So far this has been a wonderful building. It provides ample storage with virtually no unusable space. The extra clearance in the roof allows us to maximize hay storage capacity.”
Overall, the building is exactly what Barsness Dairy needed. “We love the brightness without the expense of daytime lighting. We have maximum usable space because we aren’t fighting with wooden rafters. It allows us to have a quick and easy place to drive our big tractor, square baler and hay trailers into during a summer rainstorm. We also love the reduced taxable cost of the building, both upfront and in property taxes,” says Susan. Besides storage space, the Barsnesses are finding some other great uses for the building. Notes Susan, “The building even has enough room for indoor horseback riding in the winter! Our new building is great!”
For more information on Barsness Dairy and their ClearSpan building, contact the Barsnesses at pederb@hcinet.net.
