Shipping containers are becoming more and more versitile and are now proving to be as asset in the agriculture industry with water tanks   being fitted to the topside of the containers allowing many primary producers to add a slef sustainable residence to a property without council aproval as it is a portable container.  Additionally it is important for many primary producers to have a point of contact on large propertys so they dont have to go all the way back to the homestead to refule or in some cases even to sleep. these sort or containers are able to self collect water and store it above the unit for use in all applications and the water is able to be transported with thu unit so it is ready to go.

Shipping containers - known for there durability and many uses. Shipping containers are so well designed that each container can hold tons of cargo inside, and can easily withstand the weight of 8 or 10 more fully loaded containers on top of it. They are the strongest mobile or stationary modular structure in the world.

Unibody construction is the strongest and most common body architecture which can be found in cars, SUV’s, yachts and airplanes today – connecting multiple shipping containers together is also ‘unibody construction’. Even with modifications and walls cut out, the strength of multiple containers is far greater than any conventional home or building.

There are various size & types of containers available. Standard sizes available are 10’, 20’ & 40’. The common types of containers are 20’ GP & 40’ GP, 20’ HQ & 40’ HQ (meaning High Cube – 1 foot taller than the standard), open top, open side, freezer or refrigerated.

The 1^st shipping container was invented & patented in 1956 by an American – Malcolm McLean who was not a ocean shipper but a trucker. For 20 years he unloaded & loaded cargo onto ships using odd sized wooden crates which was slow & inefficient. After many experiments, the shipping container was finally designed – super strong, uniform design, theft resistant, stackable, easy to load, unload, truck, rail, ship & store.

Even though, Malcolm McLean invented the Shipping Container it was the US Navy, who officially used the shipping containers for other purposes than shipping such as military offices, power plants and medical facilities. Architects are now even designing modern homes from the millions of excess shipping containers that are piling up at various ports around the world. By using the steel shipping containers as building materials, home builder’s can save up-to 50% off construction costs.

Other uses can be home or business offices, workshops, restrooms, kitchens, water tank, classrooms, emergency housing or storage, garages, modern homes & apartments.

Benefits of the containers include: strongest building construction, earthquake proof, fire proof, tornado proof, extremely secure, economically covered with traditional stucco, vinyl siding, woods, or brick and fast construction.

Agriculture is forever looking for cost effective ways in which to imporve productivity and a new industry is shaping cost effective Agriculture. The shipping container industry is a strange one to be of any help to agriculture. However more and more of these steel containers are popping up around rural Asutralia. Recently I visited a Shipping container company and found that the humble steel boxes that call many farms home can be more than just a storage option or somthing to move stuff around the contryside. In fact there is apparently a multitude of options only limited by someones engeneering ability and imagination.

Vinyards have  been inovative with use of shipping containers, using them accross many different areas throught their properties. in the one inyard  a Container made to store hazerdous and explosive materials was in use in one area and in from a hortacultural perspective they were using non op[erational refrigerated containers to stor seedings and operational ones to store the produce with water tanks incorperated in the container. One particular hortucultural company was in part resposible for the design of movable and completely self suffiecient hydropnic units that can keep produce growing while beeing transported or stacked 8 containers high and use . These sort of cost effective ideas are leading the way as the need for more yeild per square metre of land increses.

The meat industry have been utilising these containers for a long time and they are becoming a more prominant part of conventional meat industry and also the non coventional meat industies like wild goat pig and kangaroo meat, due to the need to get the freshly slaughtered meat straight into refigiration out in the field. shipping containers in agriculture provide primary produces the ability to reduce cost and improve productivity and the quality of the product they supply if they can delop inovative ideas.