Impressive 'cluster' at Paruna

The Cass family has invested heavily in farm infrastructure in the past 20 years, a move Mr Cass says has well and truly paid off.

Most sheds, including three bulk grain sheds, a large machinery shed and a chemical storage shed, have been built by Grant Sheds since 1998.

While the sheds are conveniently built near the family's house and close together, Mr Cass planned their location to allow trucks and large machinery plenty of room to manoeuvre.

"The sheds were built close to the homestead, keeping in mind that we didn't want the sheds to clutter close to the homestead," he said.

"It was important that we had a bit of distance between the homestead lifestyle and work.

"The sheds grew with the size of the farm. During the time we built the sheds we were obtaining more land, which meant more machinery, more grain storage and so on. The sheds were all built in response to a need at the time.

"The location of all the sheds in one cluster is good – it's much easier than having machinery stored on other parts of the farm. It's also easier for contractors or machinery agents to come and service the machinery if it's all in one spot.

"We've also put rubble all around the sheds, and it's been levelled and rolled so that it's virtually all-weather. It makes it much easier for grain trucks, as they can turn easily and won't get bogged, plus it's good for the airbag scales."

Mr Cass said the grain sheds had revolutionised the way he marketed his grain. The three structures were built progressively, starting with a 12-metre by 36m 1000-tonne shed.

"That allowed us to get into some niche marketing of certain grain products so that we were able to hold and store and deliver throughout the year," he said.

"We've been storing rye and wheat and barley in the sheds."

He said the second 1000t shed offered more flexibility with storing more feed grain such as barley and GP wheat.

In 2011, concerned by potential bottlenecks and delays at the local silo, as well as the system used to classify grain, he built his biggest grain shed yet – a 20mx60m monster, capable of storing 4000t.

Mr Cass said storing so much grain on-farm had given him more control over when and where his grain was sold.

"The grain sheds have allowed us to be grain inventory managers or grain stock managers," he said.

* Full report in Stock Journal, October 23, 2014 issue.