Technical, Technological, Environmental and Energetical Aspects in Livestock Building Construction Using Structural Timber

The demand for energy-efficient construction in agriculture calls for a reassessment of materials used in livestock buildings. This study evaluated the use of timber as an alternative to traditional materials, with a focus on embodied energy (EE) and carbon footprint (CFP) Eight EU countries (Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy, Denmark, France, Sweden, and Finland), were analyzed considering both forest resources and livestock populations. The forest area varied from more than 310,000 km2 in Sweden to just 6464 km2 in Denmark. Meanwhile, livestock populations varied significantly, with Germany reporting over 8.2 million LSU (livestock unit, 500 kg) in cattle alone. The number of livestock buildings was estimated assuming 100 LSU per building, allowing for a comparison between timber and conventional designs. Timber-based cowsheds were found to lower embodied carbon by up to 10,433 kg CO2e per barn compared with 17,450 kg CO2e for conventional structures. Embodied energy for a single wooden cowshed was around 151 GJ versus more than 246 GJ for a traditional counterpart. Scaled up to the national level, this represents a 35–40% reduction in total embodied energy. In addition to environmental outcomes, the analysis considered economic, technical, and regulatory aspects influencing adoption. The results suggest that substituting conventional materials with timber can contribute to emission reductions in agricultural construction, while further research is needed on fire safety, prefabrication, and policy harmonizations.