You have a limited window to get the crop off the field and, as with any job on the farm, time is money. If your building is not ready on time, badly designed, not strong enough or not big enough, the financial consequences can be huge. Finding there is a problem when you are at your busiest is something no one wants.

The first and most important thing to do when selecting a building manufacturer, is to make sure they understand the direct pressures you are under, as well as the legislative pressures placed upon you to meet the specific criteria laid down by government, and all this in a cost-effective manner.

Simon Pelly, Managing Director of S&A Fabrications in Barnard Castle explains “At S&A, many of our staff come from farming families. This means we can understand and see things from a farmers’ perspective, which really helps us look at the finer details of a building design, particularly crop storage buildings”

Topics you will need to look at with your building supplier include:

Rodents – how will the building be kept free from rodents?

Ventilation – is there adequate ventilation within the building?

Lighting – how will you light the building? Natural or artificial light?

Handling facilities – how will you empty the building and are there any processes involved in storing the crop?

Capacity – is there sufficient capacity to meet your future expectations and not just your current requirement.

The variables can be huge but, ultimately, you need to think about your long term plans and see what is the best building to meet those long term plans you have for the farm. You don’t want to buy a building that will fall redundant in five or ten years time, because the farm has moved on and equally a good building manufacturer doesn’t want to sell you one. Both parties should want to provide long term solution that will be a part of your business for the future.