TYPES OF FARM STRUCTURES, AND THEIR USES
Introduction:
In a farm there are usually some structures and buildings. Harvested goods must be stored while awaiting transportation to consumers in towns and cities. There is also the need to construct buildings for farm workers to live and work in, and also for keeping farm animals.
A farm is like an industry where plant and animal products can be obtained. A farm is a piece of land used for the cultivation of crops or breeding of animals.
In general, structures are very simple buildings each designed to serve a specific purpose on the farm. Farm buildings are more elaborate and more refined structures which may serve more than one specific purpose, sometimes with some modifications.
Farm Structures include:
(i) Silos
(ii) Barns
(iii) Feedmills
(iv) Cribs and
(v) Rhumbus
Farm buildings include
(i) Stores
(ii) Offices
(iii) Workshops
(iv) Livestock houses
(v) Farm gate processing shelters.
A farm structure can be defined as anything which is constructed on the farm site to make certain farming operations easier. The farmer constructs farm structures which will suit the kind of farming that is being practised and the amount of money available for the farming operations. A small scale peasant farmer will construct only simple structures using materials, available on the farm, while a large scale farmer with plenty of money will construct complex farm structures. Successful farming demands in most cases that the farmer should have a good knowledge of these structures and buildings.
FARM STRUCTURES AND THEIR USES
Farm structures are classified according to their uses. These are:
(a) Production
(b) Processing
(c) Storage
Production structures: Can be structures for rearing animals: They include:
(i) Poultry battery cages.
(ii) Poultry range shelters
(iii) Fish pond
(iv) Rabbit hutches
(v) Grazing paddocks.
Those for tending crops under controlled conditions include:
(i) Overhead sprinkler irrigation systems.
(ii) Potting sheds for citrus nurseries and market gardening.
Processing Structures:Processing sheds are structures, designed to accommodate processing machines e.g. rice mill and oil-palm press.
Storage Structures: Nigerian farmers have different types of structures for storing harvested agricultural products on their farms, before they can be marketed or used as input in the next season's operations. Examples are
(a) Silos
(b) Cribs
(c) Barns
(d) Overhead shelters for finished farmyard manures.
(e) Compost.
Some farm structures combine the function of processing and storage. A grain silo is essential storage structure, but usually associated with it is an arrangement by which hot air is blown into the heap to dry it.
A silage pit with its overhead shelter is structure for processing forage into silage, it combines this function with that of storing the silage until it is completely used up.
Silos: Silos are used on the bigger farms to store grains and beans. It is a tall circular or rectangular farm structure, made of concrete or stainless steel. It can store up to 50-100 tonnes of grain for long periods of time. Silos are usually placed on raised platforms. They are usually expensive to build and maintaine.
Barns:
A barn is a temporary structure made on the farm for storing things like yam, cassava, grass or hay. It could be constructed cheaply with sticks, mud and thatch. Grain in sacks can also be temporarily stored in a barn.
Feedmills
In farms where livestock such as poultry, pigs and cattle are kept it is economical to manufacture their feed on the farm, Therefore, feed mills are constructed to make animal feed. Large scale farmers usually have feed mills on their farms.
Cribs
Cribs are simple grains storage structures. It is most often used to store maize, hence the name 'Maize Crib' is quite often given to it. Cribs can, however, be used to store other grains, but only if they are already bagged. They are made of wood and wire gauze on the sides and floor with a thatch or zinc roof (see figure 108). cribs are used to dry maize which is still on the cob. The size depends on the quantity or amount of maize you wish to store. A crib which is 3m long by 0.6m wide by 1.3m high can hold 1 tonne of maize. The floor of the crib is raised well above the ground on wooden legs, which have rodent
guards, to prevent rats from climbing into the crib to eat the grain kept there. To prevent insect attack, the maize cobs in the crib are sprayed with an insecticide which is not a mammalian poison. The one commonly used nowadays is called "Actellic," which are of two brands,
(a) Actellic 25 EC
(b) Actellic 2% dust.
Each crib has a doorway for loading or removing maize. All wood used in the construction of the crib is treated to prevent termite attack. Cribs are mainly used by small scale farmers in Nigeria.
Rhumbus
The Rhumbus has an earthen container in which grains are kept. The earthen container is on a raised mud platform. It is covered with tightly woven grasses. They are round structures. Common in the drier northern states of Nigeria, especially Sokoto State, where they are used for storing grain such as maize, sorghum, millet, cowpea and groundnuts. It is meant to keep insects and rodents away from the grains. The rhumbus are usually of varying sizes, but none can hold up to 1 tonne of grain.
Other structures in the farm includes:
(a) Fences (e) Compost pits
(b) Crushes (f) Waste pits
(c) Spray-races (g) Dams
(d) Dips
Fences
Many farms are fenced in or walled round for security. Fences are required on farms where animals are kept. The main objective of fencing include
(i) Prevention of damage to crops by animals
(ii) Improved grazing management.
(iii) Controlled livestock breeding.
(iv) Diseases control.
(v) Protecting livestock and crops from thieves.
(vi) To mark boundries between one farm and another. So that the farmers do not quarrel among themselves.
Fences are of different types and are made with a variety of materials such as sticks, bamboo, wire and plants, concrete or sometimes with thatch or maize and sorghum stalks.
Crushes
Crushes are like fences and are used for restraining the movement of animals particularly animals that require close observation or handling. It is useful when animals are to be vaccinated against diseases, to be castrated, dehorned, marked for identification or given drugs orally. It makes it easier for one operator to handle big animals like cattle or animals that are difficult to hold during observation.
SPRAY RACES
Spray races are similar to fences, spray races consist of a narrow path between two fences. Pipes from a pump are constructed at the sides, top and bottom of the narrow path between the fences. Nozzles are located at regular intervals on these pipes and the chemical is sprayed on all sides of the animals as it passes through the narrow fenced path.
Compost pits
These are special pits dug in the farm to make manure for crops. Waste plant and animal material are placed in the compost pit where they decay and turn into manure.
Animal dips
A dip is a concrete pit in the ground used as a bath for livestock. They are usually constructed like water tanks. The bath contains a solution of pesticide in water so that when livestock enter the dip, they are soaked in the pesticide and the ticks, lice and other ectoparasites on their bodies are killed by the solution.
Waste pits
Waste pits are large pits dug on the outskirts of a farm for dumping all the waste and useless products of the farm. Waste pits, are also called disposal pits, are usually very deep and are covered to prevent flies from carrying germs from the rotting waste in the pits to human food.
Dams
A dam is a structure made with stones, wood and mud, or concrete across a river or stream to hold back water for irrigating crops and providing water for animals to drink and other farming operations.
Other farm structures considered in farms are:
(a) Electric poles
(b) Wires
(c) Connections
(d) Boreholes and Tube wells
(e) Elevated water and storage tanks.
Large farms, which have expensive machines operated by electricity, need a system of electric poles, wires and connections on the farm to take the electric power from the generator to the various points on the farm where power needed. Electricity is needed in offices and homes of farm workers.
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