Erimo Farm- Expanding Opportunity for SPF in Agricultural buildings

By: Kevin Bews

SPF Manager, Canada Wood Japan

As written in previous blog posts, we are seeing positive increase in the number of agricultural buildings being constructed in Japan, and our joint promotion efforts with the Japan Wood Truss Council (JWTC) is really paying off in expanding opportunities for SPF dimension lumber use in this non-traditional market segment. In fact, according to 2018-member survey data from the JWTC, truss use in large scale non-residential structures jumped 54.1% and can be largely attributed to this agricultural building boom.

An excellent example of this is Erimo Farm, a new pig farm that is being built near Cape Erimo on the southernmost tip of Japan’s northernmost prefecture Hokkaido. The farm is owned by Hokkaido Chuo Bokujyo, breeding and raising pigs for pork production. On the 163,000 m² property that the company owns, it is building 9 pig barns with a combined total floor area of 18,120 m². Each pig barn being 20 m or wider and just over or under 100 m in length. On average, one of these building will typically consume approximately 150 m³ of SPF dimension lumber and in this case, it is not only used in roofs trusses but also used to construct the pig barn walls as well. Saijo Sango is supply the structural lumber for the pig barns and the nail plate roof trusses were designed by Mitsubishi Shoji Construction Materials Corporation and fabricated and supplied by Iwakura.

Exterior photos of Erimo Farm project and nail plate truss design and fabrication team

Check out the video case study produced by COFI Japan and Japan Wood Truss Council