That is a fantastic dairy farm. I can only imagine how it looked in its day. Your grandparents were obvious great caretakers of land, animals, and property. Thanks for sharing.
I’m an old barn enthusiast. I live in Montana but in 2003 I worked on a project in Indiana. There were old barns, old grist mills and covered bridges. I was in hog heaven.
My grand father used to live on a dairy farm, in exchange for milking the cows. I remember when we visited them, There was a milking barn that looked very similar to this. They lived there until the early eighties.I used to walk through that barn every time I was there.
I think those little ceiling trap doors may have been for ventilation and the moist warm air would vent out the cupolas on the roof. I bought a second farm with a pretty fancy old dairy barn built in 1918 that I raise heifers in and it has a similar ventilation system. That is back when dairymen took great pride in their buildings/farmstead. Love the architecture.
@Steve Slade The little doors he had shown and questioned there purpose were only maybe 6"to 8" square. I also saw the hay chutes to throw hay down which are a lot bigger to accommodate the loose hay and then eventually I'm sure they transitioned to square bales.
That is the coolest barn I ever seen. My aunt dairy farm was just the old classic barn cows in the basement hay in the loft equipment in the main floor
Place like heaven for people like me - who really like to look and go old places like that. And it always gets me wonder how it got like this. I think how the stuff etc. just left there, the story of behind on everything. It is so fascinating.. Thanks for sharing this! Bits of history!
Thank you for the tour through dairy history in the east. I worked with a guy( he was only out here for a year) from Wisconsin. He grew up on and had a dairy of his own for a while. He explained how the cows were held inside all winter. This was unfathomable to me. I grew up on a small dairy farm in the central valley of California. All cows are outside or cow barns are open. Some are just a shed roof. Through my junior high and high school years, late 70s early 80s we milked 300 cows. This was a decent size at the time, but not large. Now dairies are 1000 to 5000 cows and workers punch a clock ( 8 hours I'm was told by a guy who once milked for my dad and uncle), something we never did. We raised all of our heifer calves for replacement. There would be about 80 small calves still receiving milk at any one time. Then there were two pens of heifers along the lane ( driveway) about 40 head each. They were grouped by age. If we didn't have room, some were sent to pasture with people who took in cattle. Breeding age heifers went to our 180 acre pasture and bred with a beef bull then brought back home ( to my dad's house) as springers. The dry cow pen had about 65 - 85 cows. So housing this many animals would have been impossible out here, at least to me. Maybe someday I'll be able to go back east and tour an old dairy facility and a modern one to see how everything works. My dad just told me his friend (and neighbor, Mr. Souza) has a picture taken in 1915 at angle from the road. The photo is of my dad's ranch when Mr. Souza's father owned it. The photo also shows the ranch my grandfather later bought (and my dad and uncle bought out from him ). Sorry for rambling and thanks again for the tour of history.
I just love that barn Wes. I really do appreciate the craftsmanship of years past. The character of that barn is priceless They just dont build things like they used to. Kind of sad really. Thanks for the tour. It was awesome !!
I remember my grandfather father driving past that place when I was a kid. He always asked how I would like to live there. I drive past it nowadays and just see a elevator sitting there shooting into the loft. It's a shame it is a beautiful building. Could still sell for 7 figures in Alexandria.
Great old barn! A lot of old barns here in Wisconsin are disappearing because farmers don't use them like they were designed for and they knock'em down so they don't have to pay taxes on them.
I love the look of that barn, but those silos are gorgeous! Almost "artsy fartsy"! We had 2 40' silos that shared a silo unloader. Moving it from one to the other was always a circus act! Thanks for sharing!!!
This reminds me a great deal of my great grandfather's barn in SE South Dakota. It was built in 1918 - 19 and had 44 milking stalls. The overall barn was T shaped with a high gambrel roof. The long side of the T had the milk stalls (oddly enough never used to capacity -- never more that ten cows were ever milked). The sides of the T had one horse barn for about 12 horses and the other side had pens for calves. It had only one silo of the same glazed block type but it also had a battery and generator room and a patent hay handling system with an overhead track and two winches driven by a huge 120 V. DC motor on a cart so it could power either winch. The distance from the floor to the roof peak in the hay loft was about 24 feet. There were 2 grain bins in the loft, one of which fed oats to the horse barn. We used to play in the barn in the 1950's and 60's but were always puzzled by the odd bits of wood around the periphery of the loft. There were boards set at about seat height and braced with diagonal boards. One day I asked my grandfather about them and found that they were, in fact seats. The barn was brand new when my grandmother and grandfather were married and the wedding reception was held in the loft of the barn. Sadly the barn and most of the other structures were torn down when my uncle retired and the land was rented out, since none of my cousins were interested in farming. I still own about 38 acres of river bottom land which is farmed in corn and soybeans.
WOW, that farm looks like is was a show place, being a dairy farmer in New Jersey I’ve seen a lot of old barns and that is a nice one. It is a shame that what was once such a big part of New Jersey’s history is disappearing in front of us.
Not many small family dairy farms left here in western NY. Instead there are fewer, large farms with hundreds of cows. When I see those small farms I think 7 days a week, 14 hrs a day labor, almost never a day off. The large farms are more like factories, work your shift and go home. The small farms and barns look nice, but they were not if you were a slave to your cows.
Thanks Wesley for the neat barn tour. I remember working a dairy farm when I was in college for tuition money. Paid$ .75 cents an hour and I was glad to get it. Hard work but brought out the real Character in a man. Thanks for the tour Pal.
Thanks Wes for the site and Barn tour !!! Yes that's one of the GRAND old BIG BARNS of Dairy farming !! this video brings back a LOT of FOND old memories for me !! having grown up in a Dairy farming community of sorts, I use to help out on three local farms next door within few miles of where I grew up !! The biggest farm about 1.5 miles down the road was the farm of Fred Briehl, who's main barn was similar in size and design to the one your uncle had in your video !! AHHH the memories of these farms, cattle, livestock, feed, hay, bailing, equipment and tractors all is rolling through my old mind right now !!! Wes thanks for the memories and your taking time out to show us your uncles old farm !! this was a REAL SWELL TREAT for us old FARM HANDS !! MANY THANKS!!
When they built silos in the late 50s to mid 60s, it seemed like a common practice when there were 2 built side by side that they would have a roof like these ones to share an unloader. I know of some which many are long gone would still have the connecting roofs but would put in another unloader so they can feed out of both at the same time. Unloaders where a novelty at first...but quickly became a necessity!
Grew up in a barn exactly like that, my Dad's had 75 per side, damn gutter cleaner would not break until it was full and the weather was freezing. Same as the spreader. Took a couple trips down the hay shoot due to wearing gloves, as I was told not to do.
Wow very nice barn for sure‼️ For that year of a barn I don't think there were any I've seen as nice as that one. I'm assuming even back in 1930 a senator in that area made pretty good money plus had pretty good connections!! It was probably built with high quality materials as well! Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and video with us‼️
Thank you Wes! Back home, in northern Maine, the potato barns. There was a Sirois dairy which delivered milk in half gallon bottles . Delivered like the mail into an insulated diamond plated aluminum cooler outside your doorstep. I miss those days.
Possibly the Best Video I have seen. That is an incredibly well conceived and build barn. Someone put some real thought into the layout and the Senator invested some serious money into the construction. There is a massive investment in concrete alone. I have always loved terra-cotta silos. They seem to last and look great forever. This reminds me so much of a farm that was built near the end of my street in the late forties. Unfortunately it went out of business in the late sixties and not there is little left of it. I still miss Windy Hill Farms. Great video! Have a Fine Day. sdh in CT
That’s a nice bar and I imagine you could fix the terra-cotta or replace them with metal silos The barn looks like it needs minor repairs here in there it would make a nice usable barn again with a Little bit of repairs done
Interesting seeing how farming is done in other parts of the world. (Australia here) What a wondering old building. I still remember my grandfather/Uncles & Great Uncles x 2 Dairys all but gone now.
Thanks for the tour, Wes! I love old dairy barns- some of the clever things they built into them to make their lives easier were pretty neat. Spent many a day working in barns like this!
What a sweet little farm, the construction of the main barn is beautiful and that military building is super cool. It’s so interesting to see buildings that have been left with no maintenance for awhile that have vines and stuff growing up around them because it really shows you the true power of nature, that if humans were to disappear tomorrow, in time, nature would reclaim everything.
Wow...That brings back some childhood memories except my uncle didn't have a Cadillac of a barn like that one, Thanks Wes.......That is a beautiful piece of history.
that is a very awesome n cool place n rt now wouldn't take a whole lot to get cleaned back up would be nice to see someone clean it up n use it hate seeing beautiful places going to waste like that.
Thank you Wesley a wonderful view of how farming was done in the past I know there's a little bit of trash left but look at The Farms now it's 2 and 300 Cal Farms that sitting idle today that they can't make a living as well and are building 30,000 Cow Dairy Farms to put the rest out of business.
Agreed that was/is an awesome barn. I’m thinking that had to be an expensive one in its day with all the extras built in. Both of my grandparents farmed and neither one had anything close to what is in that barn. One had a hip roof and both had manure carriers at one time. One actually had a wood silo that I helped remove when I was 10-12 years old. All Douglas Fir and all tongue and groove heavy boards. Most barns here in Eastern Wisconsin were pretty much no frills. As you did your tour I could just imagine what it looked like when it was in operation. Very cool video....
It's nice to see the past a how people did things back then compare today farming. On my family farm all the old sheds are old stone walls that use an old type of concrete that's falling apart its like sand in between the stone walls now. They were built back in the early 20s and any old farm houses are also gone as well because of thetch roofs. It's nice to see your sheds and still good condition. Mybe Tim might do it up that old shed and turn it into a house for himself.
That is one of the nicest barns I have ever seen. If there was a way I would refurbish it into a home. I have always loved old barns and thought if you found a real nice one it would make a great home.
What a beautiful barn and property. It's a shame that is not being used . I have always had a fascination with dairy barns especially. Not that I ever wanted to be a dairy farmer on such a larger scale, they are just awesome structures! Thanks for the walk around!
Over here a barn like this would be worth a lot of money for conversion to living accommodation one as big as this one would probably be converted into apartments.
most of the dairy farms here on gone....only a few left. vid reminds me of growing up on our farm. wheel barreling feed. then back to the house and bust up #100 cool blocks after carrying hay& straw. my 5 sisters saved me. they wanted nothing to do with the farm as did my mother. at age 15 dad sold. which was funny i had a special drivers license. lots of arguments over that. Gwinn farm of Doylestown Ohio. American History
Thanks for the tour. Love those old farmsteads. I know you don't have time for it but that farmstead could possibly be converted into some sort of agritourism venue. It would take a lot of work and some money but it would make a great attraction. At the very least it could use a good mucking. So much to do.... So little time........
In the Uk Barn Conversions in to Houses are realy popular , a barn like that converted would make a £800,000 house . More if it had a few acres of land with it . Nice video Wesley thank you.
I Really Really hope someone is gonna save that barn! That really deserves to be preserved. If i had the oppurtunity to save it i would! Anyhwo. Cheers from DK
That building would make a cool barn conversion project. Would be some house with a little imagination. It was some building for it's day.... and to think it housed cows and heifers!
