Design your open gable farm shed with shed designer.

What is an open gable farm shed?

An open gable farm shed is a steel-framed rural building with the two gable end walls left open and the long side walls clad. Both ends sit under the apex of the roof, so equipment, trucks or stock can move straight through without turning. The long side walls and roof block prevailing weather. The open gables move airflow, which keeps stored hay and grain cooler and dryer than a closed shed.

ShedDesigner builds open gable farm sheds from 100% Australian-made BlueScope steel framing, clad in Colorbond® on the long side walls and roof, and engineered to AS/NZS 1170.2 wind loading. Pick the closest template, set your span, eave height, bay count and which long sides to wall, then submit your design once for free comparable quotes from ShedSafe accredited dealers in your region.

Open gable vs open front

Two builds, two different problems they solve.

Open gable. Both short ends open, both long sides walled. Best for drive-through workflows: hay run in one end and out the other, machinery driven through during seeding or harvest, a contractor's truck reversing in without a three-point turn. Wind uplift on a gable end is calmer than on a long open face, so portal frames are typically lighter than an equivalent open-front build.

Open front. One long side open, the other three sides walled. Best for stack storage where you want maximum bale frontage. Wind uplift on the long open face is significant in higher wind regions, so framing scales heavier and bay spacing tightens.

If you mostly load and unload from the front, see also our open front farm sheds page. If you store cut hay in volume, see also our hay sheds page.

How to size an open gable farm shed

Three numbers decide whether the shed earns its keep over 30 years.

Bay span. Most Australian open gable farm sheds run 8 to 9 metre bays between portal columns, which lines up with three jumbo square bales between columns and gives a tractor or telehandler room to swing. Wider bays at 10 to 12 metres suit twin-row machinery storage. Standard widths run 18, 21, 24 and 27 metres. Above 30 metres clear span needs custom engineering.

Eave height. A 5.5 to 6 metre eave clears most front-end loaders and seeders with the boom raised. A 6.5 to 7.5 metre eave suits a telehandler or a tipper with the body raised. A 4.5 metre eave is the practical minimum if you only ever drive a tractor through.

Length and bay count. Standard bay length is 7 to 8 metres. Run a 7 to 9 bay shed (50 to 70 metres long) for a serious mixed-storage build, three to four bays for a smaller block.

Wind, footings and Australian standards

Open ends change the wind story on a steel building.

Open gable buildings take wind pressure on the long walls and uplift on the roof, with the gable openings releasing internal pressure. AS/NZS 1170.2:2021 splits Australia into wind Regions A through D, with Region B further split into B1 and B2. Coastal, northern and cyclonic blocks need heavier portal frames, deeper footings and tighter purlin spacing. Your dealer engineers the build to the actual wind region for your block, not a national average.

Footings on an open gable shed are usually engineered piers under each portal column, sized to the soil class and the wind region. An end-to-end concrete slab is optional and only worth the spend if you also park machinery, run a workshop bay, or store grain in a way that needs the floor.

Before you get quotes

An open gable shed sits in the weather for 30 plus years. 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.

Fodder storage write-off. Under section 40-548 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, primary producers can fully deduct the cost of a fodder storage asset in the year of installation, with no dollar cap, when the asset is used primarily for storing fodder on Australian primary production land (Australian Taxation Office, Fencing and fodder storage assets). Open gable hay storage qualifies. Talk to your accountant before signing.

ShedSafe accredited dealers, no exceptions. Every dealer on ShedDesigner is third-party assessed under the Australian Steel Institute programme, which checks dealer design and engineering against the National Construction Code and AS/NZS wind loading.

One design, multiple quotes. Your open gable shed design goes out to dealers in your region. Every quote prices the same shed, in the same steel, to the same engineering. Browse the broader farm designs range for hay, machinery, grain and rural variants.