Happy with hoopsHoop buildings are a top pick on the Stockmen''s Survey[TM] as a management change tied to a product. With pigs from 900 sows being finished in fencecrimptool 12 hoop barns, Dave Struthers (shown on page 33) has learned a bit about this housing system since he built his first barn in 1996. The materials (wood, concrete, poles, and tarp) for a hoop barn that holds 200 finishing pigs costs about $8,000. Most of Struthers'' barns are made by Sioux Steel.Struthers, who farms with his family near Collins, Iowa, says hoop production works well for him and offers these tips based on his experience:

Cow comfortCow comfort was the goal when Terry Timmons (pictured below) built a new free stall barn on his dairy farm near Loudonville, Ohio. Timmons and his father milk 200 head of registered Holsteins. Larger stalls fencecrimptool with more "lunge space" in the front help their cows get up and down easier now, says Timmons. Their old barn, built in the 1970s, had small stalls that were closed in the front. The new stalls were made locally by Stein-Way Equipment in Apple Creek, Ohio. The bedding is sand.The barn was built in August 2001 for $500 a stall, including electricity and water. Timmons says the investment has already fencecrimptool paid off in better cow health.