A livestock shed is a ventilation structure with walls

By Johnny Joe, export engineer at Hebei Hongji Shunda Steel Structure Engineering Co., Ltd. · 25 October 2026 · 6 min read

Cattle, pig and sheep housing is designed around air. Animals produce heat, moisture and gas continuously, and the building has to remove all three without creating draughts at animal level.

That requirement produces a building type: a wide, open-ridged shed with adjustable side openings, sized so that the stack effect does the work for most of the year.

The ridge is the engine

Warm, moist air rises and leaves through a ridge opening; fresh air enters at the sides. The height difference between the inlet and the outlet is what drives the flow, which is why livestock sheds are tall relative to their span and why lowering the ridge to save steel is a false economy.

The ridge opening also needs to be adjustable and it needs to be weatherproof. An open ridge that lets rain in is worse than no ridge, because wet bedding produces more moisture and more ammonia.

Side openings have to be controllable

In a hot climate the sides are open most of the year; in a cold season they are closed down. That range means the openings need to be adjustable — usually with netting, curtains or hinged panels — and the structure has to carry whatever is chosen.

Wind is the complication: a shed that is open on the windward side in a storm is a shed with a large internal pressure. The frame and the fixings have to be designed for the open condition, not the closed one.

Internal columns are avoided for a reason

Clear span is worth paying for in livestock buildings because internal columns obstruct cleaning, interfere with machinery and create zones where animals bunch.

The span limit is a cost question rather than a technical one. Beyond a certain width, an alternative is to use a central row of columns with a structural ridge, which is cheaper but changes how the building is used.

The floor is where the waste goes

Slatted floors, solid floors with scrape alleys, or deep litter — each has a different structural and drainage consequence. A slatted floor needs a tank or a channel beneath it, which changes the foundation and the levels.

Whatever the system, the floor has to be designed for the cleaning method. High-pressure washing in an animal building is routine, and it reaches the column bases.

Corrosion is driven by ammonia

Ammonia from waste attacks steel, particularly where it is damp. The roof underside and the lower parts of the frame are the two zones that suffer, and both are difficult to inspect in a building full of animals.

Protection has to be specified for the actual environment rather than for a general agricultural building, and the details that trap moisture and manure have to be avoided rather than painted over.

What I want before drawings

• The animal type, stocking density and the heat and moisture produced.
• The ventilation strategy and who is designing it.
• The floor system and how waste is removed.
• The width the building must span without internal columns.
• The cleaning method and frequency.
• The wind speed for the site in km/h from the applicable local code, not a round number.

Livestock buildings are cheap per square metre and expensive per mistake, because the mistakes show up as animal performance rather than as structural defects. Settle the ventilation before the frame.