A REVOLUTIONARY farm building has become even more innovative with the installation of an automated 2.5-tonne straw spreader.

Roundhouse Building Solutions Ltd (RBSL), part of S&A Fabrications of Barnard Castle, have fitted the spreader in the second Roundhouse 45 (RH45) it has erected at Onstwedde in The Netherlands.

The RH45 is the largest of three models the company supplies but, thanks to a larger than normal overhang, the latest building is larger than the original.

The straw spreader hangs from a gantry off the roof supports, and allows fully automated bedding.

Simon Pelly, from RBSL, said: "The Roundhouse was originally designed to enable farmers to manage stock in an easy stress-free manner. Normally, farmers feed and bed the animals from the perimeter of the building with a loader, but this innovation has for the first time allowed us to automate the bedding."

The RH45 is twice as big as the original 30m diameter Roundhouse 30 (RH30) building, and is capable of holding double the number of animals.

Normally it has a diameter of 45 meters, a circumference of 144 meters, and an internal area of around 1,500sq m. Consequently, it can hold just over 300 beef animals at 500 kgs and 180 dairy cows.

The new Onstwedde model has a diameter of 50m because of the overhang, and a total area of 1,963sq m, of which 1590 metres is inside the feed fence. The roof construction has been completely redesigned because of the huge forces involved.

The building will be used for housing dairy cows. It has been built by and erected by RBSL’s Dutch partners ID Agro.

"The farmer was impressed by the ease of management in the building, and the stress-free environment," said Marco Noordman, of ID Agro. "He knew his cows would perform in the building and we are very pleased to have erected it for him. The cows will be going into the building in September."

So far, only three of the large RH45 Roundhouses have been built in England with another due this autumn.

The most popular model is the RH30 model and they are already housing milking cows, dry cows, heifers, calves, pigs, sheep, goats and even buffalo – one has even been erected as a playground cover!

Recently, the company has launched the 22m diameter Roundhouse 22 for calves and for the equine market.

Mr Pelly said: "We are delighted with the way that farmers have embraced the concept of The Roundhouse, and keep thinking of how they can get more out of the building."