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Theoretical thermal analysis of the barned livestock environment affords owners the opportunity to explore process efficiency, energy substitution and animal response ahead of costly and time-consuming field trials. In this article, a thermodynamic model is developed and experimentally validated against a homogeneous, cage-free, single-storey broiler barn. The simulation predictions agree well with the experimental results. The average root mean square error is 5.8% for the temperature prediction and 6.3% for the humidity prediction. The model further allows assessment of heating and ventilation efficiency, demonstrating the significant energy savings available to insulated barned structures, with such efficiency measures recommended ahead of any consideration for energy substitution.