Nebraska farmer Eric Fisher is building a bigger equipment shed for several reasons. For one, his 6,000-acre corn, soybean, wheat and milo operation is growing.

“We’re still looking to expand. We need a facility we can get into to work on machines. And with the technology in our tractors, we need to be able to communicate,” says Fisher, noting the facility will have Wi-Fi throughout. “We’ve had the technology for a lot of years within our tractors, but we’ve never had a set of offices we could incorporate.”

The new 80-by-160-foot shed represents a major upgrade over Fisher’s old facility, which is heated by propane and isn’t insulated. When the new shed is finished in the fall, the facility will have in-floor heating, LED lighting, an enclosed wash bay, tool storage and an air compressor.

“We haven’t moved in yet.” While the structure is done, “we still have a lot of electrical work to do in it,” Fisher says. “The in-floor heat isn’t ready; the plumbing isn’t ready. We were hoping to be in it by harvest, but that’s not going to happen.”

Modern agricultural machines are rapidly becoming more technologically sophisticated. They’re also getting bigger, keeping pace with increasing farm sizes.

“A building that worked for my grandpa’s 420, won’t work for the latest 9RX,” says Dennis Lee, farm product line manager at Morton Buildings. “You used to see a lot of ag equipment stored in open-sided structures. We’re seeing a trend toward much larger, much more sophisticated farm shops.”

Lee comes from a farming family that raised cattle. Machinery was housed in “a three-sided pole barn, with 12-foot spacing on the posts and one long sidewall,” he says. “When the rain came, everything got wet. The barn protected equipment for about 80% of the day.”

A growing trend

Modern farm shops, on the other hand, fully protect equipment and contain state-of-the-art features. Lee says farmers are drawing ideas from other industries.

“We’re seeing a growing number of buildings pulling technology from the aircraft industry, like bifold doors that can be operated with a remote. Garage doors are getting bigger every day with new technology,” he says.

Lee recently helped a customer who toured a NASCAR shop for inspiration, such as bright LED lighting, epoxy flooring, interior wash bays and low-speed, high-volume ceiling fans.

“Many buildings have a large air compressor. A lot of times, it’s installed in an enclosed room outside the building, and the air is plumbed through the building with aluminum pipes,” Lee says. “That’s come from the commercial car industry — so you’re not dragging a hose around the shop.”

Fisher says technological infrastructure is necessary to maximize modern farm machines’ capabilities. He’s hoping that creating a dedicated workstation for the operation that’s large enough to house equipment will enable him to better utilize the data that’s collected by his tractors and combines.

“We haven’t been getting the value out of our technology. We’re trying to improve our infrastructure side, and try to get the value out of it,” he says. “If we can get our data compiled and be able to understand each individual field better, I think we can make sense of it.” The first step is “to be able to take care of all of that in one facility.”

Across the country, Lee says that farm buildings are getting bigger[WM1] . He attributes this to a hybrid truss system developed about a decade ago that combines wooden columns and nailers with a metal bar-joist style truss. Steel parts are transported to the site and bolted onto the wooden frame. The design lets engineers span up to 150 feet of space.

“We started to see an uptick in building size when those came out [about 10 years ago]. The increase of features on the inside has been a slow but relatively recent rise,” Lee says.

Investing in future

More tech features and a bigger physical footprint reflect Fisher’s expectations for his family’s future. His 22-year-old son, Leighton, just recently returned home to work with Fisher on the farm.

Technology is embedded in every modern machine, and Fisher says his son will have to adapt to future innovations. A modern farm shed will set Leighton up for success. He’s also hoping that a state-of-the-art facility will attract skilled laborers both now and in the future.

MODERN SHOP: This 81-by-120-foot farm shed has a fully lined interior, radiant floor heating, large fans, a 50-foot hydraulic door, storage on the mezzanine, LED lighting, backup generator system, and several offices for farm management. It includes a shipping and receiving dock building, as well as a business office. (Morton Buildings)

“Our machinery increased in size. My son and I are doing 90% of the labor, and the rest is people we bring in during harvesttime,” he says. “At my age, do I need to be investing in a facility like this? I could probably get by. But I have a son who is coming back, who wants to farm.”