Welcome
Introduction
Livestock producers in the United States who are looking for lower cost structures for raising animals have shown a great deal of interest in hoop barns or hoop shelters as facilities for housing swine. Hoop barns can be used successfully for gestation and finishing of swine, beef and dairy cattle, sheep, ratites and other livestock. But in order to implement hoop designs successfully, producers need to be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of this type of housing weighed against those of traditional facilities.
A number of manufacturers are offering these units for sale, and research-based information is available to help producers decide if a hoop barn is a good investment. To help producers and designers resolve some of the issues involved in using hoop barns, this site summarizes information about designing and using hoop barns. This information changes depending on the types of animals being housed.
One of the purposes of this site is to categorize the information based on the animals of interest. These sections can be reached at any time during your web visit by clicking the appropriate link in the main navigation above or the supplemental bar below. Or, choose any item from the following list:
- Swine
- Beef
- Other Livestock (sheep, dairy cattle, ratites, etc.)
Announcements
15-Nov-2006. The Beef section has received a significant update, with new pictures and information added to the Basics page. The other pages in the Beef section have not yet received updated details. Stay tuned for future updates.
Please Note
This site is still a work in progress. The Swine section has the most information and includes all of the currently available publications. This is because the majority of the published research has been done on hoop structures for swine. The Other Livestock section has recently been updated with new information for hoop structures for sheep, horses, and ostriches, but lacks the depth of the Swine section. The Beef section has also received a recent update with new pictures and details, but some of the pages still contain placeholder information (as indicated on those pages) until new, relevant information can be added.
Please continue to check back on this site for updates. New information will be posted as expediently as possible. Thank you for visiting and please return again.
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Last updated 22-December-2006 at 9:00 am CDT.