State Wide Sheds helping farmers drought-proof properties

Interest in new sheds at AgQuip was strong after the federal government recently announced the “100 per cent tax deduction” on fodder sheds.

“The government’s announcement last Sunday (August 19) to increase the tax advantages of building hay and fodder sheds to a 100 per cent deduction in the 12 months that it’s built has got to be a good thing for all the farmers,” said State Wide Sheds operations manager Michael Dodd.

“It encourages them to try and drought-proof their own farms and make life a little bit easier for themselves come the next drought.”

Farmers are able to depreciate the construction costs of a fodder shed in the first year, rather than over three years, which had been the policy since the 2015 federal budget.

“We’ve been really busy at AgQuip,” Mr Dodd said.

“Farmers are trying to increase their ability to drought-proof their farms by increasing their ability to be able to store more hay and fodder, and to do that you need more shed space.”

State Wide Sheds also specialises in machinery sheds and commodity sheds as part of the business.

Mr Dodd said some farmers had a header that cost $750,000 that was used for only six weeks of the year.

“They need to get it out of the sun and weather to protect its value,” he said.

“The same with some of these sprayer rigs and big tractors. There are lots of dollars tied up in plant.”

State Wide Sheds operates Australia-wide and manufactures the sheds using structural steel in its Dubbo factory.

A team of builders and subcontractors can travel across Australia to erect the sheds.

“Everything is custom-made. It depends on the needs and wants of the client as to whether they want back walls or no walls,” Mr Dodd said.

The company takes on a lot of commissioned work in the Central West of NSW and caters to bigger operators such as councils and mining companies – not just rural sheds.

“We do do garages and carports but it costs more money to build (in structural steel, rather than the purlin steel used for smaller builds),” he said.

“We specialise in bigger sheds. The biggest shed we’ve built is about a 60-metre by 30m grain shed.

“We also did a commodity shed for Fletchers’ rail line.

“We are doing one that is 30m wide by 38m long and 10.5m high, fully enclosed with nine massive roller shutters for an earth-moving equipment workshop.

“All our sheds are different, whether they are rural, industrial, commercial or undercover horse arenas.”