Everybody with a farm background knows how to build a livestock building. You get necessary approvals, do excavation work for the site and then construct the building. Once there is a roof overhead and sides on the building to protect workers from rain and snow, equipment is moved into the building and assembled. Once the system is functional, livestock enter the building.

Summit Livestock Facilities, Remington, Ind., and Rose Acre Farms, Seymour, Ind., are turning that scenario on its head. It starts the same and ends the same, but in between everything reverses. The equipment is assembled first, then wrapped with 2-inch, insulated steel panels to form the shell around it. It’s all about converting to cage-free egg production in a cost-effective way that makes it feasible for the egg producer.

Ed Bahler, CEO of Summit Livestock Facilities, and Tony Wesner, chief operating officer of Rose Acre Farms, recently invited people to see what the concept was all about. Summit is building three new cage-free layer facilities for Rose Acre Farms at its Pulaski County, Ind., farm. One is already in operation, and the other two are nearing completion — both at different stages in the process.

The best way to understand how the concept works, and to realize the difference it makes for the birds themselves, is to view it in pictures. Because of biosecurity concerns, primarily over avian flu, very few people have access to the buildings. Biosecurity measures must be followed even to enter and see buildings under construction, without chickens present.

Tour a house under construction in pictures above. Photos provided by Summit Livestock Facilities are noted, with the company as the source for the photo.