By Wendy Sweeter

Jared Questad, a 21-year-old beef producer from Baltic, S.D., is getting a leg up in cattle feeding with a fabric covered barn.

He put up a Rush-Co building from Whetstone Ag Supply in September.

Questad decided he wanted this type of building after working on a feedlot while going to school at Lake Area Technical Institute in Watertown, S.D.

"I really enjoyed how things worked there and how you can be so specific and precise," Questad says.

Besides his previous experience with a hoop building for feeding cattle, Questad did some research and found some positives on ventilation and that condensation won't hang on the roof.

Jared Questad, shown during the open house for the new barn, worked at a feedlot with a cattle barn before putting up one on his own farm. Photo: Wendy Sweeter

Questad's building is 50 feet wide and 196 feet long. The barn is split into two pens that will hold 125 head of cattle. He filled the barn in October with commercial cattle that weighed about 600 pounds. He will feed them to finish weight.

The main feature Questad likes about his new building is the amount of light in the barn.

"With the canvas top, you do get light that comes down through the top. It has a transparent way of letting light through, whereas if you have a metal roof, you're not going to get any light through," Questad says.

He says the cattle inside the barn have appeared to be more comfortable than those outside this winter. They should be gaining more and using feed more efficiently.

The proof will come when he ships cattle to the packer.

Read more about Questad's barn and hear what the builder says about Rush-Co fabric-covered structure in the February issue of Dakota Farmer, "New farmer uses fabric covered barn," page 69.

Sweeter writes from Worthing, S.D.