A newly paved feedlot for 2400 head of beef cattle.

Built 6 inches thick to accommodate heavy equipment, the lot required 2000 cubic yards of ready mixed concrete. This feeder expects concrete to pay for itself in eight to ten years because it provides an all-weather surface, which helps in planning and controlling feeding costs.

Concrete on the farm No harvest yet, but the market is stirring

BY JAY A. RUNESTAD AGRICULTURAL ENGINEER NORTH CENTRAL REGION

ural builders and ready mixed concrete producers have shared the sagging farm economy with farmers and other agri - b u s i n e s s e s. Now there are encouraging signs for improvement resulting from decreasing interest rates and decreasing costs of livestock production. In fact, these reduced costs have resulted in profit for many livestock producers even though market prices remain at a very low level.

array of consumer goods. Most of these products are being promoted with sales campaigns that include offers of reduced or delayed interest charges, discounts, and rebates. With this kind of competition, the construction industry will need to do more work in promotion and sales than has been customary if it is to share in the available business.

Sources of information on planning and building

Farmers and rural builders often depend on the Cooperative Extension Service for the information needed to plan and build farm production facilities. The source of this information is usually the Midwest Plan Se rv i c e (MWPS). County extension offices and the Agricultural Engineering Department (AED) at state universities will have the MWPS information. Other information sources and some of the available publications are listed at the end of this article.

Farm market opportunities

The potential exists for some increase in remodeling and construction of facilities for manure storage and handling since many producers have not yet upgraded to the newer recommendations for improved worker and animal health. Demand for grain storage facilities, both on and off the farm, will be spurred by low grain prices and a new government-subsidized storage program, paying 25 cents per bushel per year. The interest in horse barns has shown considerable growth recently. These are mainly commercial facilities for housing leisure horses for non-farm clientele.

Concrete quality standards

Many of the farm applications for concrete, including floors and paved areas for feedlots and dri ve s, manure handling and storage facilities, walls of buildings, and feed and grain storage structures, have special requirements for durability. Table 1 gives recommendations based on the durability needed. In addition to recommendations in the table, use on-

Competition for the farm construction dollar

Builders will be competing against many other purchases that have also been postponed, such as tractors and machinery, pick-up trucks and cars, and the usual

ly air-entrained concrete with the lowest workable slump. Farm applications for concrete are exposed to severe conditions that must be taken seriously. Communication between owner and contractor is also very important in preventing problems inherent in projects built without a detailed plan. Table 1. Durability and strength for air-entrained concrete
Durability (weathering and chemical resistance) and strength depend primarily on water-cement ratio. Adding water after the truck arrives rapidly lowers durability and strength. Only 12 gallon per bag (about 3 gallons per cubic yard) separates the groups in the table. These are approximate guidelinesfollow plans or specifications if available.

The importance of proper curing should be stressed and agreement reached on who will do it. A spra y- o n curing compound or a covering of polyethylene film works well and both are convenient curing methods.

A grooved floor surface allows water to drain rapidly and provides sure footing for dairy cows. The grooves may be tooled during finishing or sawed later. Contractor and owner agreement prior to construc tionThe contractor and owner should agree in advance on the type of floor finish. There are no hard and fast rules governing types of finishes and it is difficult to describe a floor finish verbally. Match the finish to the type of livestock to be housed on the slab. For example, a Relative strength 4=100%
100%

Paving
The most common farm application for concrete is a slab on ground for feeding floors, feedlots, and floors in
Approx. strength psi Gallons Water-cement water/bag ratio, lb. water cement per lb. cement

Kind of job

Feedbunks, slats aboveground bunker silos 4,500 Unventilated manure tanks, parking lots, underground silos 4,000 Feedlots, floors, walls, drives, basements; open top or ventilated manure tanks, reinforced retaining walls, beams and columns 3,500 Footings, foundation walls, gravity retaining walls

5.0

0.44

Use
12 tone pickup or less

Thickness
4

5.5

0.49

Small trucks, most farm machinery & wagons; occasional larger trucks, moderate-sized loaders, manure tanks or spreaders Most expected non-highway loads Frequent large trucks, grain wagons, or manure tanks

5 6 8

145% 224% 400%

6.0

0.53

3,000

6.5

0.62

From Farm and Home Concrete, AED -26, Reference 1b g ro oved floor is usually preferred for free stalls in a dairy barn. The grooves help prevent slipping and improve drainage. Although the contractor may have had experience in this area, the final decision must be left to the owner. Making sample finishes on small areas of the current project, or touring other existing facilities is helpful in getting a preconstruction agreement on the desired finish. Use of reinforcing steelReinforcing steel in the form of welded wire mesh is often placed in slabs, but in most residential or agricultural applications it adds to the material and labor cost with little or no benefit. The following are exceptions, where the reinforcing steel serves a useful purpose (1c).*

From Farm and Home Concrete, AED-26, Reference 1a

livestock buildings. The thickness of these pavements varies from about 4 to 8 inches. Livestock building floors and outside paved areas on which loads are limited to livestock, cars, small trucks, and smaller farm equipment need be only four inches thick. Areas subjected to heavier equipment, such as large trucks, grain wagons, and manure tanks may need to be as much as eight inches thick. See Table 2 for recommended slab thicknesses. Table 2. Recommended slab thickness
Thickness depends on both size and frequency of maximum load.

1. Tie-bars (30-inch No. 4 bars at 48-inch spacing) placed perpendicularly across the joints between the two outer rows of slab sections prevent the joints from opening up due to slab drift. These are usually needed only on hillsides, areas subjected to frequent heavy loads, or across the longitudinal joint of wide driveways. 2. Welded wire mesh or bars may be beneficial in shop floors, the bottom slab of flush gutters and mechanical manure scraper channels, and in floors containing an embedded heating system for electrical resistance cable or hot water pipes. 3. Welded wire mesh or bars are beneficial as part of the grounding system to control stray voltages and are most commonly used in milking parlor floors of dairies. 4. Reinforcing is often needed for special floor design found in grain handling facilities. Follow the equipment manufacturers suggestions. 5. It is advisable to have a clear understanding with the owner concerning jointing and the use of reinforcing mesh. Standard jointing procedures should be used to control random cracking. Allowing the feedlot slabs to crack randomly contributes to the premature failure of the slabs. For non-reinforced concrete (without wire mesh) a commonly accepted guideline for jointing is: joint spacing in feet should be 2 to 3 times the slab thickness in inches. Information available from the North Central Region of the Portland Cement Association (2) includes: Concrete Paved Feedlots (2a); Concrete Farm Drives (2b); and a video taped program on feedlot paving, Concrete

lution of surface and ground water and to cause nuisance odors; therefore, laws have been enacted to regulate its disposal. Because it contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, it can supply a significant part of the fertilizer needed for crops. Tank storage of manure conserves more of these nutrients than lagoon storage. Concrete structures for manure handling and storage have been a major use of concrete on farms for more than a decade. Although the demand has been severely curtailed in the past few years, there is renewed interest in making improvements to existing manure handling facilities. Most of this activity will involve adding on or remodeling. The current trend is toward getting manure out of the building as soon as possible in order to improve the air quality in the building. Facilities will be built or remodeled with gravity-drain gutters, flush gutters, or scraper systems, all of which are designed to remove manure from the building at frequent intervals and deposit it in an outside storage tank. Gravity-drain gutters are built with U, V, Y, or rectangularly shaped cross-sections. Concrete manure storage tanks are cast in place or built with precast sections and may have any desired shape. For more information see Concrete Systems for Manure Handling (2d); Livestock Waste Facilities Handbook (1e), and other handbooks from the Midwest Plan Service. The North Central Region of the Portland Cement Association has developed a computer program which can be used to help plan a manure storage system. The program is in the form of an electronic spread sheet template to be used with Multiplan, Lotus 1,2,3, or Visicalc. The basic input data include the number of each class of livestock, the number of days for which storage capacity is desired, and the prices of commercial fertilizers and their composition. From this it calculates the manure storage capacity needed and the approximate dollar value of the manure compared to the cost of commercial fertilizer. The program also evaluates the costs of rectangular and circular tanks and the optimum dimensions for each. The information is based on material estimates for tank designs available from the Midwest Plan Service. Circular tanks up to 120 feet in diameter and 14 feet in depth as well as open-top rectangular tanks are included.

Concrete Walls
This Y gutter is cast on a 4-inch concrete pad. Forming systems are available for the Y to be cast in one section. Paved Feedlots (2c). Concrete walls should be considered for all farm building applications because concrete is the only material with all the desired properties: durability, strength, fire resistance and economy. If used properly, concrete can help control rodents, protect the wall insulation from damage by rodents, protect livestock and machinery, provide easy-to-clean surfaces and serve as the heat storage medium for solar heating systems. Concrete will not rot, rust, or burn, and it resists chemical damage. Often times buildings of inferior quality have been

Manure storage
Manure is a by-product of livestock and poultry production that can be converted from a problem to something of value. It has the potential to contribute to pol-

A circular manure tank may be more economical to build than a rectangular tank. This tank is 80 feet in diameter, 14 feet deep and has a 9-inch thick wall. It serves a hog confinement building and feedlot. purchased for short term tax advantages during high profit periods. Although tax-break economics have been used as a major selling tool, building for the tax advantages of investment credit and a rapid depreciation schedule hasnt proved to be a very effective means of coping with low prices, low profits, and high interest rates. The only measures that help under these conditions are factors that reduce production costs. The long life of concrete walls can play an important part in controlling costs. Simplicity of constructionMost farm applications require simple one-story buildings, and the walls may be tilt-up, precast, or cast-in-place. Uninsulated walls range from 8 to 16 feet in height, while insulated walls may be no more than 8 feet above grade. Most of these buildings are considered to be nontechnical applications for concrete and are usually built without detailed individual design. Basements and other cast-in-place walls are typical examples of nontechnical applications. InsulationUninsulated concrete walls are used for cold livestock housing or machinery and grain storage buildings, but insulation is required for warm livestock housing. There are three ways to insulate a concrete wall: place the insulation on the inside, the outside, or embed it within the wall. Any of these methods can be adapted to farm buildings, but care must be exercised to cover the insulation completely to prevent damage by rodents. Maximum protection is provided for insulation by embedding it between concrete layers in a sandwich wall. Tilt-up wallsTilt-up or precast panels have seve ra l advantages. They can be made manageable in size and can be cast in advance on the jobsite or at a different location. Tilt-up panels require only the simplest of forming materials, usually ordinary dimension lumber. One further advantage over cast-in-place is that the individual panels can be moved and reused if later remodeling

requires this option. Design and construction information is available in Tilt-Up Concrete Construction For Agriculture (1e). More data can be found in Tilt-Up Precast Concrete Sandwich Panels For Farm Buildings (3a). Cast-in-place wallsAbove-grade cast-in-place walls are easily constructed with wall forms used for basements or manure tanks. Sandwich wall construction is achieved in different ways. One of the early methods was to set forms with the insulation against one side of the forms, place one layer of concrete, move the form away from the insulation, and cast the other concrete layer. Although it requires additional labor, it is a simple and effective method. Many different devices and procedures have been tried for placing concrete on both sides of the insulation at the same time. There are several proprietary products that can be used to space the insulation between the forms. Nonmetallic spacers and connectors should be used if available. Lightly reinforced cast-in-place concrete walls should be planned to include control joints so that the chance of random cracking is minimized. Recommendations may vary but 8-foot spacing between joints can be expected to eliminate intermediate cracking. Joints are made by attaching l2-inch-wide by 34-inch-deep beveled strips opposite each other on the forms. Caulk the joints with a good quality caulking compound to prevent the penetration of moisture. Cast-In-Place Concrete Sandwich Walls For Farm Buildings (3b) gives detailed information on this construction method. One cast-in-place method utilizes new or existing post-frame buildings. Concrete panels are cast between the poles. With the pole spacing commonly at 8 feet, forming may be done with 4x8-foot sheets of 3/4-inch plywood secured against the inside and outside of the poles. Form ties are also used. Commercial wall forms are also readily adaptable to this application. If the pole dimension is too small for the wall thickness desired, a spacer is used to position one of the forms away from the poles. The walls can be insulated by any of the techniques used for cast-in-place sandwich walls. A detailed explanation of this construction technique appeared in the Jan/Feb 1976 issue of Farm Building News. Reprints of the article, Builders Find Post-Frame and Co n c re t e Mix, are available from the Indiana Concrete Council (4). Concrete is placed between the poles from 12 to 18 inches below grade for a rat barrier to about 4 feet above the floor. Although the building use will dictate the concrete height, 4 feet is adequate for most of the common pole-building applications. One method of securing the panels to the poles is to drill holes through the poles and extend the reinforcing bars continuously through the poles from one concrete panel to the next. This ties the walls together with the poles serving as control joints. Additional cracking is unlikely to occur. The amount of reinforcing steel should satisfy loading requirements or the minimum amount of temperature steel recommended by American Concrete Institute 318-83 (Building Code Requirements).

In cold climates some precautions should be taken to p re vent damage to walls and floors from frost heaving. The concrete panel/post-frame combination is similar to a grade beam foundation and procedures for controlling frost heaving of grade beams are appropriate. A recommended procedure includes placing 4 to 8 inches of granular fill in the trench before placing the concrete, and providing drainage from under the walls and floor. This is only an introduction to concrete applications for farms. In spite of the diversity among farms, all share the need for durable materials. With the realization that farmers in the U.S. must compete in the world market farmers and builders must plan facilities to reduce production costs. Agricultural production facilities built with concrete serve that purpose through long maintenance-free service.
Information sources 1. Farm and Home Concrete, AED-26; Midwest Plan Service (MWPS), 122 Davidson Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011 a. Durability and Strength for Air-entrained Concrete, AED-26 b. Recommended Slab Thickness, AED-26 c. Use of Reinforcing Steel, AED-26 d. Tilt-up Concrete Construction for Agriculture, AED-22

e. Livestock Waste Facilities Handbook, MWPS 18 2. Portland Cement Association, North Central Region, 6600 France Avenue South, Suite 470, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55435 a. Concrete Paved Feedlots, NCR-A186 b. Concrete Farm Drives NCR-A184 c. Videotape: Concrete Paved Feedlots, NCR-24A d. Concrete Systems for Manure Handling, NCR-A283 3. Communications Branch, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, c/o University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario a. Tilt-up Precast Concrete Sandwich Panels for Farm Buildings, AGDEX No. 714 b. Cast-in-place Concrete Sandwich Walls for Farm Buildings, AGDEX No. 175 4. Indiana Concrete Council, 9860 North Michigan Road, Carmel, Indiana 46032

PUBLICATION #C860639
Copyright 1986, The Aberdeen Group All rights reserved