Agricultural Building Curtains Buyer’s Guide

Written by David Eichelberger | Jun 11, 2025 4:15:00 AM

As a livestock producer, your animals are your lifeblood. You may have raised many of them from birth, you spend every day caring for them, and they help support your family. Therefore, it’s understandable that you want to provide the best care possible for them. You feed them quality nutrition, ensure their health, and protect them from predators and external threats. But their long-term well-being also depends on protecting them from the elements—often an overlooked aspect of daily animal care.

Proper shelter and environmental control are central to animal welfare. This means not only housing your livestock safely, but also safeguarding them from heat, cold, wind, rain, and harmful sunlight. Curtaining systems play a significant part in modern livestock housing by helping create a balanced and healthy indoor environment. If you are researching livestock barn curtains for the first time, or considering a replacement, it’s important to understand— or be reminded— why high-quality barn curtains should be considered an essential investment for your operation.

Livestock barn curtains deliver a range of crucial benefits:

Ventilation: They promote air movement within the barn, reducing humidity levels and improving air quality, which is vital for both respiratory health and animal comfort.

Insulation: Quality curtains help maintain a stable interior temperature, keeping barns warmer in winter and cooler in summer, and ensuring that livestock remain comfortable and productive year-round.

Temperature Control: With the ability to open or close curtains as needed, you have the flexibility to regulate the barn environment efficiently, preventing heat stress or cold shock in animals.

Light Control: Adjustable curtains help you control the amount of natural light entering the facility, reducing glare and supporting healthy activity cycles for your livestock.

While the market offers many options for barn curtains, not all are created equal. It may be tempting to select the most affordable solution, but this can lead to higher long-term costs due to the need for frequent repairs and replacements. Investing in top-tier curtains not only enhances animal comfort and health but also delivers a better total cost of ownership, lowering ongoing maintenance expenses and protecting your bottom line. When it comes to the care of your animals and the success of your operation, quality should always be your top priority.

Why is quality important?

Quality fabrics are durable and last longer. Cheaper curtains tend to break down faster, crack, and cause the film coating to become useless, which allows infiltration. High-quality fabrics can last two to three times longer than low-quality ones.
Fewer Installation Costs. The less often you need to replace your curtains, the fewer times you'll need to pay for installation.

These two factors alone reveal the truth about high-quality versus low-quality fabrics: while low-quality fabrics may be cheaper initially, the long-term costs of replacing them are higher than those of high-quality fabrics. High-quality fabrics are reliable and generally lead to lower overall replacement costs.

So if quality is important, what should you look for?

Choose non-breathable fabrics over breathable ones. This may seem counter-intuitive, but non-breathable fabrics make it easier to install and adjust curtains than breathable fabrics. High-quality fabrics include protective layers that help them last longer and offer better control over ventilation. However, be cautious: non-breathable curtains may perform no better than breathable ones if the fabric quality is poor. Make sure your curtains are high quality!
Ensure your curtains are resistant to mildew and UV rays for optimal outdoor performance.
Hems and RF Welding. Radio frequency (RF) welding is used to create hems on quality curtains by bonding materials together with electromagnetic energy.
Pocket Hems. Pocket hems reinforce the most stressed area of the fabric, resulting in longer-lasting curtains. Curtains with pocket hems are less likely to come apart because of the strong mechanical bond created by the stitch.

Get the Most Out of Your Curtains

You can buy the best curtains in the world, but if you don’t care for them properly, they won’t be able to achieve their full protection potential. Here are some tips for caring for your curtains to keep them as effective as possible for as long as possible:

Cleaning & Maintenance Best Practices

Don’t use a high-pressure sprayer system on curtains. High-pressure sprayers can peel paint off aluminum siding, and fabric isn’t designed to withstand that level of water pressure; it can break down faster if used. Instead, spray clean with a garden hose-type sprayer once a year. While high-pressure sprayers are discouraged, it’s still best practice to clean the fabric annually. Our products are waterproof and resistant to dirt, but mold can start to grow on the dirt remaining on the surface. Proper cleaning with a garden hose once a year removes the dirt that can cause mold, helping keep both your curtains and your animals healthier.
Don’t use cleaning chemicals on your curtains. While cleaning is important for the long life of your fabric, harsh chemicals can cause it to break down more quickly. Water alone is enough to clean your fabric.

Prevent rodent damage. Rodent infestations can harm your curtains and create problems for your livestock. To prevent this:

Cycle curtains once a month. Raising and lowering the curtain once a week during hot months to stir the curtains will discourage rodents from making your curtains their home.
Implement proper rodent baiting practices. Placing bait stations around the barn roughly every 25 feet helps control the rodent population. Be sure to check these regularly.
Keep weeds and other debris at least 18 inches away from the barn wall. Cutting back or removing grass and weeds can lower rodent activity near your facilities, as rodent traffic increases in grassy areas.

Be sure to install your curtains properly as well. You can find installation tips in our Best Practices for Care and Maintenance of Herculite Ag Curtain Guide.

Now that you understand the importance and characteristics of livestock barn curtains in the health and safety of your livestock, you have the tools you need to determine which providers will serve you best for years to come.

Just remember that no matter the quality of fabric, proper care and maintenance is essential to ensuring the longest life possible. Considering total cost of ownership over the long run instead of up-front investment continually ensures the care of your livestock, your bottom line, and ultimately your family.

Want to learn more about what makes for a great agricultural curtain? Check out our new Infographic!

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