Dairy barn layout and construction: Effects on initial building costs

Abstract

On small dairy farms, high investment costs and lack of investment capital may delay the modernising of facilities. The aim of this study was to investigate the importance of economics of scale in building costs of barns compared to other sources of variation in costs. The study includes 44 farms with a mean herd size of 49.5 ± 15.1 cows, built between year 1999 and 2006 and with a mean total area in the barns of 896 ± 454 m 2 . Building cost data were obtained from farmers and merged with construction, mechanisation and layout data from the same barns. Construction costs decreased up to approximately 1250 m 2 while mechanisation costs and total building costs decreased up to approximately 1000 m 2 . A further increase in building area had only limited effect on the building costs per m 2 . Models including explanatory variables showed that milking and service area was significantly more expensive than other areas. AMS-barns were all together not significantly more expensive than other barns, since the increased mechanisation cost is offset by a lower requirement for milking area. Farmers remodelling their barns were able to realise a modernised building for a certain herd size for a lower cost compared to a completely new building. The use of their own effort varied considerably between projects. In many cases, farmers would be able to find alternative income sources with a higher hourly rate than the value of their own effort suggested by the model.