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Design a custom open front farm shed online. Three-sided steel sheds for hay, machinery, livestock cover. Free quotes from ShedSafe accredited dealers.
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What is an open front farm shed?
An open front farm shed is a steel-framed rural building with a roof, two end walls and one long back wall, leaving the long front face fully open. It is the workhorse layout on Australian farms because it lets a tractor, telehandler, ute or stock walk straight in without doors, while still keeping rain, frost and UV off whatever lives inside. Most open front farm sheds are built from 100% Australian-made BlueScope steel, clad in Colorbond® on the roof and back wall, and engineered to AS/NZS 1170.2 wind loading for the actual block.
ShedDesigner's open front templates carry the standard three-sided shape, plus skillion and gable variants, and let you size span, eave height, bay count and wall height to the use case. Pick the closest template, drop your dimensions, set your bay count, then submit your design once for free comparable quotes from ShedSafe accredited dealers in your region.
Open front sub-types
Three layouts cover most working farm builds.
Three-sided gable. Symmetrical roof pitch over a clear-span portal frame with one open long face. The default for hay storage, machinery cover and combined-use buildings. Eave height 3.6 to 9 metres, span 12 to 30 metres, bay length 6 to 9 metres.
Skillion (mono-pitch) lean-to. Single-plane roof sloping from a high front to a lower back. Cheaper to build, sheds water on one direction only, useful as a stand-alone implement shelter or as a lean-to attached to a walled shed. Best for narrower spans (12 to 18 metres).
Open-front cattle and stock cover. Lower eave (3.0 to 4.5 metres), shorter back wall, often with a kickback rail or low timber wall on the open face. Sized to AWI / Meat & Livestock Australia stocking densities for paddock shelter rather than for machinery clearance.
Wind, drip line and prevailing-wall siting
Three trade-offs to settle at design time, before you peg out the slab.
Wind region matters more than on a walled shed. Open front structures take significant uplift on the open long face. AS/NZS 1170.2 splits Australia into Regions A through D, with Region B further split into B1 and B2. Higher region equals heavier portal frames, deeper footings and tighter bay spacing (Standards Australia, AS/NZS 1170.2 Structural design actions, Part 2: Wind actions). Coastal and northern paddocks need engineering to the actual region, not a national average.
Orient the back wall into the prevailing weather. In most of southern and eastern Australia the prevailing wet-weather wind is westerly to south-westerly, so the closed back wall sits to the west or south-west and the open face looks east to north-east. This single decision keeps stored hay dry, cuts wind-driven rain off machinery, and lets stock shelter from the cold front rather than into it.
Eave overhang and drip line. A 600 to 900 mm eave overhang on the open face shifts the rain drip line away from the slab edge or hardstand. Without it, rain runs off the gutter and pools at the base of the open face, which rots timber, rusts wheel rims and softens compacted base. Spec the overhang at design stage so the dealer prices it into the portal frame.
For dedicated hay or machinery use cases, see also our hay sheds and machinery sheds pages, or the broader farm designs category.
Before you get quotes
A three-sided shed lives in the weather for 30 plus years, so it needs to be engineered to the paddock it sits on. Four things worth knowing before quotes go out.
100% Australian-made BlueScope Steel. Across structural framing and Colorbond® cladding. BlueScope's COLORBOND® steel cladding for sheds and garages carries a warranty of up to 15 years against corrosion to perforation, with the exact period set by location and application (BlueScope, Garages & Sheds Warranty). Check your build on BlueScope's online warranty estimator.
Primary producer tax framing. Open front sheds used primarily for fodder storage qualify for the unlimited fodder storage write-off under section 40-548 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Australian Taxation Office, Fencing and fodder storage assets). Open front sheds used as general farm assets fall under standard primary producer depreciation. Talk to your accountant before signing.
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One design, multiple quotes. Your open front shed design goes out to dealers in your region. Every dealer prices the same shed, in the same steel, to the same engineering, so the quotes you get back are directly comparable.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What's the cheapest open front farm shed layout?
A skillion (mono-pitch) lean-to over a 12 to 18 metre span is usually the cheapest open front layout per square metre. Single-plane roof, fewer purlins, lower portal weight, faster build. Three-sided gable layouts cost more per square metre but carry larger spans (up to 30 metres clear) and stack more efficiently for dual-use builds. The cost-per-square-metre crossover is usually around the 15 to 18 metre span mark.
Which way should the open face point?
In most of southern and eastern Australia, the prevailing wet-weather wind is westerly to south-westerly, so the closed back wall sits to the west or south-west and the open face looks east to north-east. In tropical northern Australia the prevailing wet-season wind is north-westerly, so the back wall flips to the north-west. Check your local wind rose (Bureau of Meteorology) before you peg out the slab.
How much does an open front farm shed cost in Australia?
Most open front farm sheds in 2025 sit between $130 and $200 per square metre installed for a standard portal-frame shell on compacted hardstand (Action Steel, ABC Sheds 2025 indicative pricing). A 24 x 12 metre three-sided shed lands roughly $40,000 to $60,000 supplied and installed before slab, hardstand or earthworks. Pricing climbs with eave height, wind region and bay count.
Do I need a concrete slab?
Usually no. Open front sheds typically sit on engineered piers with a compacted gravel or limestone hardstand, which is cheaper, faster, and lets moisture drain away from the structure. Slabs are standard for dual-use builds where you also park a workshop bay or store finished hay. Your dealer can price both options in the quote so you can compare without re-specifying.
How does an open front shed handle wind in Region C or D?
Heavier. AS/NZS 1170.2 wind region drives portal frame weight, footing depth and purlin spacing. In Region C (cyclonic) and D (severe cyclonic) the open face takes large uplift forces, so the engineering steps up materially. Some buyers in cyclonic zones add a partial front wall (one or two bays walled in, the rest open) to reduce the open-face area and bring engineering cost down.
How tall should the eaves be?
Set eave height from the tallest object that needs to sit or move under the shed. Typical eave heights: 3.6 to 4.2 metres for stock shelter, 4.5 to 5.4 metres for ute and tractor cover, 5.4 to 6.0 metres for telehandler and small machinery, 6.0 to 7.5 metres for hay stacks, 7.5 metres plus for telehandler-loaded hay or large header storage. Build for the tallest case, not the average.
Can I add an end wall door later?
Yes, end-wall personal access doors and roller doors retrofit cleanly because the end wall is already framed. Adding a long-side roller door (turning a three-sided shed into a four-sided shed) is more involved because the open long face has no portal frame studs at standard door spacing. Spec any future-fit doors at the design stage so the dealer can build the framing in from day one.
What's the difference between an open front shed and a hay shed?
An open front farm shed is the general layout (one open long face). A hay shed is a specific use case of that layout, sized around bale stack height and ventilation. Most hay sheds are open front sheds with very tall eaves (5.25 to 9 metres) and a back wall positioned for prevailing-weather protection. For purpose-built hay sizing, see the hay sheds page.
Other Farm designs
Hay Sheds
Tall open-front hay shed sized to your bales. Engineered to AS/NZS 1170.2, ATO fodder-storage eligible, ShedSafe accredited dealers.
Dairy Sheds
Dairy shed designs for milking operations. Customise layout and clearances for your herd size.
Machinery Sheds
Engineered cover for tractors, headers, sprayers and headers. Open-front or walled, BlueScope steel, fully customisable.
Rural Sheds
A general-purpose rural shed sized for hay, machinery, fencing, fertiliser and the workshop bay, in 100% Australian-made BlueScope steel.