Perhaps the ultimate design is a shed with a retracting roof. With the roof withdrawn, the delivery lorry or trailer can reverse right back into the shed and tip all of the feed within the shed.

These sheds are manufactured and erected by Wrights Quarry Products of Co Monaghan. Advantages include:

  • There’s no need to push feed into the shed from outside with a loader.
  • Emptying is quick.
  • The yard area outside the shed remains clean. There’s no need to sweep up feed, dust etc.
  • The feed doesn’t get wet.
  • In addition, one of these sheds will meet the other basic requirements that the feed store be weatherproof, bird-proof and that access for vermin is made as difficult as possible.

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    Wrights manufacture the feed stores in one standard size which will hold an articulated lorry load of feed, i.e. about 30t.

    If more feed is to be stored, or as is more common if more types of feed must be stored, then additional units can be added on, side by side.

    The advantage is that different feeds don’t mix and bays are emptied and replenished quickly.

    Multi-bay units are of interest to busy grain merchants but a number of farmers have bought single and double stores.

    Last week, I went to see the feed store just put up by Quinns of Baltinglass.

    The group has six outlets and the new store is at its Naas branch.

    The new building will store the full range of coarse rations for beef, dairy cattle and sheep produced at its feed mill in Baltinglass, as well as rolled barley and other feedstuffs.

    Picture one

    The new feed store has eight separate units, able to store a full range of coarse rations and other feeds.

    Feed will be delivered into the stores by Quinns’ articulated lorries.

    Feeds will then be typically loaded into tractor trailers of the firm’s farmer clients.

    This set-up requires a sizeable area of open yard in front of the stores to allow lorries and tractor trailers to turn. Use of the roofed area is very efficient.

    Picture two

    Each unit has two hinged, swinging doors in front. Given that the roof retracts, a roller door is not used.

    Each shed is 4.2m (14ft) wide and 9m (30ft) deep. The walls are 2.5m (8ft) high. The roof is 4m (13ft) high at the front gutter and 4.8m (16ft) at the apex.

    Picture three

    The roof has been retracted and the delivery truck has reversed in for tipping. The sheds are designed so that there is a gap of about three feet each side of the trailer, enough room for a driver to open the back tailgate, etc.

    Picture four

    Quinns driver Stephen Martin can tip up his 35ft trailer fully and empty it.

    Picture five

    All the coarse ration is inside the shed, under the line of the roof and inside the line of the doors. With the doors closed it will be covered from rain and protected from birds.

    Picture six

    “Quinns of Baltinglass sell a very large tonnage of coarse rations and other feeds in this area,” branch manager Ray Nolan (left) told me.

    “There has been a shift by our farmer customers from bags to bulk because it gives them better value and less handling when feeding.

    “This new feed store will allow us to handle bulk feed more efficiently and more cleanly.

    “An articulated lorry can empty and be gone in a few minutes – that keeps costs down.”

    Niall Kinsella (right) oversees bulk feeds at the branch.

    A guide price for these feed stores is €16,000 plus VAT for a two-unit shed.

    How it works

    A lot of clever design work has gone into the Wright retracting roof. The front section of this A-roof (Picture seven) slides up towards the apex and then down the far side, underneath the other roof section.

    The roof section is slid using a pull-chain which rotates the pulleys (Picture eight).

    The big pulley is connected to a roller chain (Picture nine) which pulls the roof section in and out of place.

    The roof section has wheels which roll inside the H-beam rafter.

    Wrights didn’t forget the front gutter either (Picture 10). The gutter sections over each doorway simply retract with the roof section.

    They feed into the downpipe which is, in fact, the front pillar of the shed.