2018 NFBA Livestock Facility Building of the Year
Building use, importance, and newsworthiness: This complex of buildings is an egg production farm for Forsman Farms. The project consisted of five (5) – two story layer barns, each 180’x606’x23′, three (3) – pullet barns, each 133’x432’x12′, an 80’x606’x24′ manure storage/drying building, and an 80’x210’x14′ packer/cooler building. The Forsman family has been producing eggs for decades, and this project allowed them to dramatically increase their production. This facility, which meets the cage free criteria for chicken confinement, houses over 1 million chickens under roof, which produce over 750,000 eggs per day.
Unique features: The project has 786,888 square feet under roof, or just over 18 acres, and if you consider that the layer barns are each two story, the total usable floor space for this project is over 1,300,000 sft. The space requirements for the birds, as well as the proprietary ventilation systems, make for a project that is probably unmatched for sheer size. The ability to maximize interior space while maintaining a lower overall height were important to the Forsmans and to the surrounding neighbors.
Post-frame advantage: As a past customer of RAM Buildings, the Forsmans are very familiar with post frame construction and it’s many benefits. Specifically, the two story requirements and the climate control/ventilation concerns that arise from housing so many birds, make post frame construction a more economical solution than steel frame, stick frame, or any other type of construction. Additionally, the speed of construction and completion timeline was critical to the owners. Post frame clearly was the way to go.