GREENSBURG, Ind. — In 1957, a small family-owned business from Greensburg found its start with the construction of a simple patented livestock shade. Today, the company sells its product line of portable buildings, open stall buildings and livestock feeders nationwide.

Though this company has just six employees today, Klene Pipe Structures has built a strong, national reputation for its shelters and feeders. “Our products target those in the rural setting and come in the form of a do-it-yourself project,” said Klene Pipe Sales Manager Kevin Dockery.

Among the top-selling frames are the 12-by-12-foot Maverick and Wrangler shelters, both designed as run-in shelters for horse, cattle, goats and sheep. The Maverick was among the first frames to emerge from the company.

“Our run-in shelters can be used for a variety of reasons, for a variety of animals and to house different machinery.” Dockery said. “Two years ago we came up with the Wrangler and made an economic version of our Maverick. Since then, our Wrangler has outsold our Maverick by four to one.”

A selling point is that their durability allows them to be dragged across a property. “We have the niche in this sort of venture because our buildings are truly portable,” Dockery said.

“When we say portable, we don’t mean you can take them apart and put them somewhere else. You simply drag them across the pasture. You don’t need to take them apart to relocate them.”

Center aisle pole barn frames (largest is 36-by-48-foot) and storage and shelter frames (24-by-36-foot) are for those with multiple livestock in mind. Ten types of hay saver feeders and five styles of livestock feeders are available. But one of the company’s hottest items of late is the H-8 hay saver horse feeder.

“Although we may not have much control over how much we pay for hay, we can control how much hay is wasted – or in this case, not wasted,” Dockery said.

“Until recently, about the only choices you’ve had to feed big round bales to horses was the traditional ring bale feeder or no feeder at all.”

This prompted those at Klene Pipe to patent the H-8 Big Bale Feeder, designed specifically for horses. The patented fold-down grills of this unit are designed to make it impossible for the horse to bury its head into the bale, thus eliminating breathing problems from inhaling hay dust.

The grills help keep the hay from being blown in the wind and they are gravity-controlled, helping to keep the hay in the feeder. The grills can be locked in position to keep horses from overeating. This unit, constructed of heavy wall steep tube, weighs in at 750 pounds.

“The grill can be locked into the upright position to make is safe for the horse when you are loading a new bale,” Dockery added. “This feature allows you to discontinue feeding at any time and makes this feeder a breeze to clean out.”

Two other hay saver units are the H-10 and H-12.

“We’ve added our H-10 feeder a few years ago and that’s taken off very well,” he said. “Nowadays people are using big square bales of hay, so we adapted and came up with the H-10 feeder which fits these larger bales of hay.”

Klene Pipe supplies its customers with frames for the structures, while the customers do the handiwork. According to Dockery, the building frames are easy to erect.

“One doesn’t need to be able to read blueprints nor be a carpenter,” he said. “What you are building is a structure that is completely self-contained. There are no trusses that require machinery to hoist them into place. You simply lift  2-by-6-inch rafters to the roof and follow the steel frame. Most of our buildings have an eave height of eight feet, so you’re not working 20 feet off the ground. There are no special tools required.”

For help with construction, the company offers a 90-minute DVD that shows a building being built bolt by bolt.

The company was founded by the late Ralph Klene in 1949. Following the company’s first livestock shade in 1957, the company added the HF-216 cattle feeder to its line in 1964. Not until 2004 did the company feature its patented folding grill feeders.  Business is booming at this plant, to say the least.

“We used to be geared towards hog people and cattle people,” Dockery said. “Those were our main clientele, but today we’re doing more for the horse and cattle industry.”

Klene Pipe products will be on display at next week’s Ohio Farm Science Review. Klene Pipe Structures may be reached at 529 N. Anderson St., Greensburg, Ind., 47240 or by calling 800-876-9721.