barn

thumb|Timber framed with siding of vertical boards was typical in early New England. The traditional color is the result of iron oxide stain applied to protect the wood from UV damage. thumb|The Texas Technological College Dairy Barn in [[Lubbock, Texas, U.S., was used as a teaching facility until 1967.]] thumb|Russian women using a hand powered winnowing machine in a threshing barn. Note the board across the doorway to prevent grain from spilling out of the barn, this is the origin of the term threshold. Painting from 1894 by [[Klavdy Lebedev titled the floor or the threshing floor (Гумно).]] thumb|Grange Barn, Coggeshall|Grange Barn, [[Coggeshall, England, originally part of the Cistercian monastery of Coggeshall. Dendrochronologically dated from 1237 to 1269, it was restored in the 1980s by the Coggeshall Grange Barn Trust, Braintree District Council and Essex County Council.]] thumb|A bridge barn in Switzerland. The bridge (rather than a ramp) in this case also shelters animals. thumb|Starke Round Barn in Red Cloud, Nebraska, the largest freestanding barn in the United States.

A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain. As a result, the term barn is often qualified e.g. tobacco barn, dairy barn, cow house, sheep barn, potato barn. In the British Isles and in Europe, the term barn is restricted mainly to storage structures for unthreshed cereals and fodder, the terms byre or shippon being applied to cow shelters, whereas horses are kept in buildings known as stables. In mainland Europe, however, barns were often part of integrated structures known as byre-dwellings (or housebarns in US literature). In addition, barns may be used for equipment storage, as a covered workplace, and for activities such as threshing.