ECONOMY OF THE ROUND
DAIRY BARN

By WILBER J. FRASER

URBANA, ILLINOIS, FEBRUARY, 1910

Summary of Bulletin No. 143

1. Round barns would be more generally built if their advantages were known and if the few which have been erected had been rightly constructed.Page 1.
2. The round dairy barn offers greater convenience in storing, handling and distributing the feed.Page 5.
3. In the circular construction, much greater strength is secured with less lumber.Page 6.
4. The material for rectangular barns costs from 34 to 58 percent more than for round barns of the same area and capacity.Page 7.
5. Round and rectangular barns compared.Page 11.
6. Round and rectangular barns, including silos, compared.Page 13.
7. Detailed account, with illustrations showing how the round barn at the University was built.Page 17.
8. Itemized statement of cost of a 60-foot round barn.Page 29.
9. Brief descriptions with illustrations and plans of several round dairy barns in actual use.Page 31.
10. Conclusions. The advantages of the round dairy barn are convenience, strength and cheapness.Page 44.

ECONOMY OF THE ROUND DAIRY BARN

Full Specifications and Detailed Cost and Construction of the New Sixty-foot Circular Dairy Barn at the University. Saving of Round over Rectangular Barns. Notes on Several Round Barns on Dairy Farms.[A]

By W. J. FRASER, Chief in Dairy Husbandry

The planning, construction, and arrangement of farm buildings do not usually receive the thought and study these subjects warrant. How many dairymen have compared a circular, 40-cow barn with the common rectangular building containing the same area? How many understand that the circular structure is much the stronger; that the rectangular form requires 22 percent more wall and foundation to enclose the same space; and that the cost of material is from 34 to 58 percent more for the rectangular building?

In a community in which everyone is engaged in the same occupation, one person is likely to copy from his neighbor without apparently giving a thought as to whether or not there is a better way.

In a district of Kane county, Illinois, a certain type of dairy barn is used by nearly everyone, while in the next county a distinctly different type prevails, and the dairy barns of another adjacent county differ from those of either of the former, simply because the early settlers of this particular locality came from an eastern state and started building the style of barn then common in Pennsylvania.

In a certain community in Ohio where a milk condensing factory is located, a large number of farmers have barns 36 × 60 feet, with an “L” the same size. The loft of the “L” is used for the storage of straw, and the cows run loose in the lower portion. These barns are all built on practically the same plan and are usually of the same size, and this is the only community known to the writer where this form of barn is used in this manner.

This tendency to imitate emphasizes the fact that men do not exercise sufficient originality. Because most barns are rectangular is no reason that this is the best and most economical form.

Why More Round Barns Are not Built

Fig. 1. Barn No. 5. 100 feet in diameter, scale 20 feet to one inch; Showing increased mow capacity given by self-supporting roof.

In an early day when lumber was cheap, buildings were built of logs, or at least had heavy frames. Under these conditions, the rectangular barn was the one naturally used, and people have followed in the footsteps of their forefathers in continuing this form of barn. The result is that the economy and advantages of the round barn have apparently never been considered. This is because they are not obvious at first sight, and become fully apparent only after a detailed study of the construction. For these reasons, the rectangular form still continues to be built, altho it requires much more lumber. As the price of lumber has advanced so materially in recent years, the possible saving in this material is a large item, and well worth investigating.

The objections to round barns have usually been made by those who have only a superficial knowledge of the subject, and do not really understand the relative merits of the two forms. To the writer's knowledge, there has never been published a carefully figured out, detailed comparison of a properly constructed circular barn with the rectangular barn.

The difficulty with most round barns that have been built, thus far, is that they do not have