Location is something that most chain stores, chain restaurants, car dealerships, etc. base as the number one thing that contributes to the future success of a business. That’s why that Tim Hortons is placed just off the highway and at the entrance to town. New car dealerships are usually grouped together and visible from a major highway. Food suppliers have been known to even bid for the most visible shelf space in a store to increase their sales over the competition.
Even our pioneer farmers chose the most efficient location on their new farm to build their barn and other buildings. Because they did the heavy jobs like drawing in hay, grain, or corn with horses, they built their buildings close to the centre of the farm to make transportation as short and economical as possible.
The drawing out and spreading of manure from the animals was made more efficient if the barn was in the middle of the farm. When every farm pastured their milk cows, the pasture was closer to the barn so it took less time to fetch the cows twice a day for milking, even if that year the pasture was in the back field. This was brought to my attention while attending a dairy-barn building workshop several years ago.
Something else emphasized was the high cost of moving ground, filling in depressions, and moving little hills. This prompted us to look at many different possible barn locations before choosing one. Sometimes it is more efficient to purchase a site to build on than to spend half the price of a farm moving ground to prepare for the new barn, feed storage and manure storage. Now most farmers are farming several farms and having the barn in a central location can save thousands of dollars every year for just transporting feed to the barn or manure away to a distant farm. Most new barns today place their manure storage behind the barn where it is less visible and less likely to be smelled.
Because heat stress is a major concern, a barn built on a hill to make best use of summer breezes is much easier to ventilate and reduces stress on the animals. Since the milking parlour is the place where the most milk or money is collected, a nice view of the outside world and proper ventilation in the parlour improves the attitude of those who milk the cows.
Many new milking facilities are placed close to a paved road to make winter snow plowing and lane way maintenance easier to facilitate access for the milk tanker that collects the milk every other day or every day on a large farm.
When harvesting hay, corn, or grain farmers try to work the field to allow the wagons or trucks to be loaded at the part of the field closest to the barn or the road to reduce hauling time for the truckers. Often several exits to the road from the field can reduce the time and cost of trucking. Trucking in the field is usually less than ten kilometres per hour but when on the road only the speed limit slows down a truck.
The location where a farmer pushes the snow is also important. It requires less time and fuel to push snow down hill than up and in the spring, when the snow pile melts, the water shouldn’t run down through the yards or towards the barn. This simple act will reduce muddy barn yards and a possible flooded barn.
Whether you are a farmer or a new home owner, the location of any building and the elevation where it stands can make it a joy to live in or work in and maybe some day much more attractive to a potential buyer. The taxes and insurance cost is based on square feet of size and construction material but not on where it is built, in a low spot that floods every year or on a dry, well drained, elevated location. Sometimes one lot is much less expensive than another but you must calculate the cost of getting the area suitable and desirable to build on, enjoy and maybe sell some day.
