One of the critical reasons why a wide range of agricultural industry professionals rely on the Douglas Agricultural Cost Guide is because it can be used to accurately estimate the Replacement Cost New of a wide array of structures within the sector. When insurance, real estate, and construction professionals consider the replacement implications of wide-ranging farm structures, they can be elusive. That’s why the Douglas Agricultural Cost Guide remains crucial to professionals across industries and the only reliable resource for accurately estimating the replacement cost for manure storage structures.
Why Replacement Cost for Manure Storage Poses a Challenge
Manure storage is a mandatory requirement within livestock production operations. These facilities range from semi-confined open lots to completely enclosed structures. These structures are designed to contain the type of manure produced from a wide array of livestock housing / production facilities. Manure containment facilities are commonly broken into the following three categories.
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Solid Manure Storage Facilities
These are typically associated with livestock production that includes dairy, poultry, horse and beef cattle. These sometimes labour intensive operations integrate automation wherever possible.
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Slurry Manure Storage Facilities
These facilities generally use covered pits that can be either below grade or on grade level and are built to withstand pressure from the surrounding ground and heavy machinery, as well as the pressure of the manure being stored. Slurry is typically considered as between solid manure and liquid manure. These storage facilities are typically associated with dairy, poultry and beef cattle facilities.
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Liquid Manure Storage Facilities
This type of manure storage generally can be either open or covered pits that can be below grade level, on grade level, totally under a livestock, partially under a livestock barn, open top or fully enclosed and are built to the same high standards as the solid and slurry manure storage facilities. Liquid manure is associated with swine, dairy, beef and poultry housing / production enterprises.
Given how different these structures and methods are, the replacement cost for manure storage facilities will include vastly different expenses to rebuild. Liquid storage replacement may consist of filling in a damaged facility and relocating to another area of the farm. Solid manure facilities, in contrast, are more likely to incorporate automation and industry-specific machinery. Manure storage facilities have diverse moving parts that simply cannot be accounted for by using conventional estimation approaches.
The Douglas Agricultural Cost Guide Delivers Accurate Manure Storage Estimates
One of the things that have made the Douglas Agricultural Cost Guide the industry standard is that it allows users to select potentially hidden costs and account for items unique to the farm sector. The resource comes in a hard-copy version and an online tool that simplifies even complex cost estimation, such as manure storage. If you have suffered a loss and require a replacement estimate that insurance adjusters, builders, and other stakeholders can agree on, the Douglas Agricultural Cost Guide delivers the accuracy key people can agree upon.
