Search Site   
News Stories at a Glance
Deere 4440 cab tractor racked up $18,000 at farm retirement auction
Indiana legislature passes bills for ag land purchases, broadband grants
Make spring planting safety plans early to avoid injuries
Michigan soybean grower visits Dubai to showcase U.S. products
Scientists are interested in eclipse effects on crops and livestock
U.S. retail meat demand for pork and beef both decreased in 2023
Iowa one of the few states to see farms increase in 2022 Ag Census
Trade, E15, GREET, tax credits the talk at Commodity Classic
Ohioan travels to Malta as part of US Grains Council trade mission
FFA members learn about Australian culture, agriculture during trip
Timing of Dicamba ruling may cause issues for 2024 planting
   
Archive
Search Archive  
   
New round barn will give Hoosier farm an old-fashioned look

By ANN ALLEN
Indiana Correspondent

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Ind. — Brandon McClarnon has a herd of Gelbvieh cattle and a three-step plan to create a Hoosier farm homestead to showcase them. “I want the place to look like it has been there for a century or more but operates with 21st century efficiency,” he said.

Before he took the first step last year by constructing a new round barn on his Hancock County farm north of Charlottesville, he researched historical publications and found himself torn between round barns and 16-sided barns.

“A 16-sided barn would have saved time,” he said, “but I’m glad I spent the extra time and money to make it round.”

While the efficiency of round barns frequently is debated, McClarnon wasn’t concerned about that. “I just wanted room for horse stalls and a drive to park my trailer and truck,” he said. “I was more concerned about the exterior appearance.”

He succeeded so well with that look that travelers on busy 1-70 often come back for a second look at the round barn covered with bright red steel siding. 

Growing up in central Indiana, McClarnon spent a lot of time in his family’s barns. Throughout his high school years, he framed houses and then did electrical, plumbing and HVAC work while earning a degree at Purdue University. It was while helping work on a round barn in Hancock County that he fell in love with the structures introduced to Indiana in the early 1900s. Eventually, he moved to Moline, Ill., to work for John Deere, but continued to do construction work on the side in Illinois and Iowa before moving back to Indiana, where he has worked on several projects and learned more about historical architecture.

“I now work at Hamilton Exhibits as their construction engineer,” he said. “I design very complex projects. Most of them are made with wood and aluminum.”

His round barn was no exception.

“I built it like a new pole building,” he said. “I got the lumber in January of 2009 and began to cut it to size. In March, I put my posts in the ground and began to build. My father helped out when I needed an extra hand. Two helpers assisted in lifting the rafters into place. The pieces I’d cut during the winter went together like a puzzle.”

While he didn’t keep track of the time it took to build the barn, he estimates it at about 600 hours over a seven-month period of working weekends and evenings. “It would have gone faster if we hadn’t had so much rain.”

Even so, he is grateful for his engineering background. “Without that, it would have taken much longer,” he said. “I tried to get a quote to have someone build the barn with my plans, but no one was interested –  and I asked a lot of barn builders. It was harder than the pole barns most people build, but it really wasn’t all that difficult.”

To date, he has spent $16,000 on the barn as contrasted with $20,000 it would have cost to construct a rectangular barn. And he likes the amount of space he acquired – 1,360 square feet on ground level and a loft of equal size. “The loft is a bonus,” he said. “My kids like to play up there.”

A pulley system moves heavy items to the upper level otherwise accessed via a curved stairway, the likes of which were never seen a century ago.

In addition to laminated posts, a spiral staircase, steel siding and OSB boards, another feature of the McClarnon barn not seen in the round barns left from the early 1900s is a windmill atop its cupola.
“The windmill is homemade—a rewired GM alternator that runs 24 volts. It has aluminum blades and is hooked up to a bank of batteries,” he explained. “I then invert to 110 volts to run compact fluorescent and LED lights. It cost about the same as putting up a nice weather vane.”

While he describes the windmill as very quiet, he says it most likely will be temporary until he gets power run for the new house that is step two of his old homestead plan. Step three will be construction of a Gothic-roofed bank barn to house his cattle.

Much as he loves his round barn, he feels it would have been far simpler to construct a 16-sided barn, especially the roof. “It would be just like a house with a hip roof,” he said. “You can snap lines and place ridge shingles between the pie shape sections. Most round barns that get a new roof today use large, locking shingles in sections with ridge shingles between the sections because it is faster. I don’t like the look of it. Original barns with shake shingles look much cleaner. That was the look I was going for.”

He achieved the look he wanted, but if he were building another round barn, he would hire someone to put on the shingles. “Every shingle had to be cut to fit,” he said. “It was very time-consuming.”
“I had hoped my round barn would pique interest for new round barns,” he said, “and it has.” But, while he is quick to say he would build another round barn, he just as quickly adds, “for my own farm.”

“Several people have asked me to build one for them, but I’m not about to quit my job to build round barns, much as I love them.”

3/17/2010