Construction on the all-steel barn sow facility in South Dakota, which began in the fall of 2022, was completed in the fall of 2023. The barn has housed pigs for about a year and started shipping piglets a few months ago. The project features the first prefabricated steel swine barns in the U.S. Built by Ag Property Solutions and managed by Pipestone Management, the facility brings new technology for fire prevention, biosecurity and energy efficiency.
“Using all steel was really inspired by the customer,” says Scott Unke from Ag Property Solutions. “Pipestone Management has been building steel buildings in China and Mexico for a number of years. “They’ve asked us for steel buildings before, but we struggled to find somebody to work with. When we got introduced to C-Lines, they’d asked us again, and we went all in.”
C-Lines is a European company that AP, AGCO’s swine equipment brand, reps in the U.S. C-Lines designed the steel structure and the engineered design was built in the AP plants in Illinois, then Ag Property Solutions built the barns in South Dakota.
“We supplied the steel structure, the ventilation, the control systems, and a lot of the equipment that went inside the structure,” says Brian Rieck, AP’s senior product manager.
“From my perspective, the main driver of the steel structure was fire prevention,” Rieck says. “That’s what got the conversation started. And as we progressed through the design phase, and many conversations with different people and experts, we found that there were other things that were value added as well. The biosecurity, the speed of putting that building up, and all the efficiency and shipping that structure to that site were things that we kind of knew, but we discovered and learned more about as we went through the process.”
As with any project being done for the first time, challenges arose. Rieck says the products went through the plants well, but he believes they will be able to complete the design process faster in the future “Now we know better ways to source the products and get them to the site in a timely manner,” he says. “We learned a lot about the shipping process that we didn’t quite understand in the beginning. Those were some of the challenges that we saw throughout the project.”
Unke says he can’t wait to do more projects like this. One of the biggest differences in the steel construction versus wood was transporting the pieces to the site.
“Brian and I have had a lot of conversations, we can hardly wait to do the second and the third,” he says. “With wood buildings, you’ve probably seen these big wood trusses going down the highway. They require special permits. And when you’re delivering them in the wintertime, it’s really a difficult process. Every one of the trusses for steel building came packed in a shipping container, and were taken out snow and ice free in a legal sized vehicle. When you’re building in South Dakota in the wintertime, and the snow and the ice is flying, building up on your trusses, and you’re in charge of that building, you don’t sleep very well.”
With the C-Lines design, the buildings can be engineered to fit any size project.
“You can design the structures to fit the different footprints or different needs of each customer,” Rieck says.
With a footprint of up to 55 acres, the complex includes a 187,500-square-foot farrowing barn and gilt developer unit and a 225,000-square-foot gestation barn that incorporate the prefabricated steel panels.
Due to the large scale of the project, finding insurance for large agricultural structures has been increasing in difficulty. While the initial cost is greater, there are benefits from an insurance perspective due to the flame-retardant technology utilized. The ROI appeals to lenders.
The two swine buildings employ polyisocyanurate (PIR) insulated plasterboard sandwiched between two sheets of metal in their sidewalls and ceilings.
“One of the big differences with the steel structure itself was the sandwich panels, or the PIR panels that were used in the construction process for sidewalls and ceilings,” Rieck says. “The unique thing is it comes in one panel. So that’s part of where this efficiency of construction comes into play. You can put up a lot of square footage of sidewall or ceiling in a relatively short period of time. The other thing that we found is it’s more efficient when it comes to the thermal impact. The high thermal performance allows the foam to smolder and melt, but not burn or drip or cause surrounding materials to catch fire.”
With the panels, another feature Unke appreciated was the ability to walk on the attic floor.
“It’s 100% walkable, so you don’t have to look and see where you’re going to step and be afraid that you’re going to put your foot through the ceiling and into the production area,” he explains. “You can walk in every square inch of the attic without any concern. And that allows them to more safely check the filters. This is a filtered barn. Also with the sealed panels, it’s much cleaner, and thus, more bio secure.”
Initial data shows promise for all the benefits of the all-steel structure, and more time will bring additional observations and ideas for future projects.
“So far, it’s very positive feedback,” Rieck says of the initial reports from Pipestone. “We’re evolving like everything does, we’re going to evolve the next site to be a little bit better than the last site.”
Unke shares that the relationships of all the parties involved made the whole process a successful one.
“I would have never found out about C-Lines if Brian hadn’t brought me that product,” he says. “ It was a really good partnership between the three organizations, C-Lines, AP and APS, which put the whole package together to execute the plan.”
Read More:
First All-Steel Swine Barns Under Construction in South Dakota
