The costs of livestock buildings are an essential criterion in farm management. However differentiated data are often not available. Therefore several models of houses for laying hens were checked concerning costs of different housing systems. In contrast to previous calculations also models for small group systems and for organic production methods were included. Abstract Landtechnik 64 (2009), no. 5, pp. 347-349, 3 fi gures, 1 table, 2 references ■ For the selected models it was crucial that

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... hey are of commonly used systems and stock sizes. Because of the limited number of models the point was not to present a large number of variants but varying individual aspects in order to be able to show their effects. The following variations were selected for the evaluation (table 1). For all models a comparable construction with steel beams, walls of sandwich elements, and roofi ng of fi bre cement corrugated sheets were assumed. Due to a better comparability a manual egg-collecting unit was planned, although with large stock sizes automatic collecting units are used predominantly. The investment requirements of these models were determined by the Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute (vTI) on behalf of the Association for Technology and Structures in Agriculture (KTBL). The data are based on entrepreneur achievements and accounted for the price level of 2008. It covers the benefi ts for the cost elements 300 to 500 according to DIN 276, that means the building with equipment and outside facilities. Not included are ancillary construction costs such as planning and permission fees, which have to be estimated with approximately 10 to 15 %. Furthermore the expenses for estate and developement are not included. Because of the outdoor-runs they will be a little higher in the models for organic production (fi gure 1). All values are displayed in the following without value added tax.