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Barns are not a feature of the Australian rural landscape whereas the further the north you go in the Northern Hemisphere the more important they become. A barn (named after an old English word for barley) are predominantly used for the storage of crops and livestock.  In Australia the outside temperature does  not drop too low and animals can live year round out in the paddocks. The Australian farmer does have a large shed where he will store his farm equipment such as his tractor. There has also been a growing popularity for barn eggs meaning that the chicken is running around in a shed pecking about in the dirt floor but is safe from marauders such as foxes and quolls. This is currently seen as far more friendly an option for the chook as free range eggs puts the hen at risk of attack. So somewhere, in Australia, in egg production areas there are barns.

In Sweden however barns are an essential to keep the animals alive over the winter and store the crops. Often they are found attached to the house so that the farmer can have access to the animals when the snow drifts are high. In early times the heat from the animals helped warm the humans housed directly above the animals. Dried dung was often used as a fuel for heating.

Old farm building in the countryside are a wonderful reminder of the history of the area such as in the following photos. They are often the oldest building standing on a farm and its construction tells us about the period in which it was built. All the buildings in the photos are old, with two of the buildings have sod roofs. The turf acts as an insulator to keep the warm air inside. In the other two photos the barns have a log roof. The photo with the three farm buildings showed a difference in building style to the house which had a tile roof. In the other photo the house and barn are again attached to each other with all having the log roofing.

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