A barn is a large farm building used to store crops, house livestock, and keep farming equipment. Walk into a barn and you might find horses munching hay in their stalls, tractors parked along one wall, or bales of straw stacked to the ceiling. Many barns have a hayloft, a high storage area where farmers keep dried grass and grain to feed animals through the winter.

Traditional American barns are often painted red because red paint was cheap and practical: farmers mixed iron oxide (basically rust) with linseed oil to create a coating that protected wood from rot and weather. The classic red barn with a gambrel roof (that distinctive barn-shaped roof with two slopes on each side) became an iconic symbol of American agriculture.

Barns reflect the type of farming in their region. Dairy barns have milking stations and cool rooms for storing milk. Tobacco barns have ventilation slats for drying leaves. Some barns are enormous, holding hundreds of cows, while others are small, sheltering just a few animals and some tools.

Today, people sometimes convert old barns into homes, restaurants, or event spaces, preserving their sturdy post-and-beam construction and rustic character while the countryside around them changes.