Pic: Some sad Barns

[Bruce from Can.]

Went to the feed mill today to pick up some soy meal $606.00 per ton, and took the camera with me. I have seen a lot of pictures of sad old houses on here the last few days . Here are some sad barns I passed today. The first 3 pics are of a once prospruous dairy farm. Son took over ,10 -12 years ago, like to cash crop better than milk, picture tells the rest of the story. The next 2 pics, this barn was a big L shaped barn, fella had hogs.Story goes his wife was slippen around, and he hung himself in the barn. Next pic was an old dairy, out of the biz for about 20 yers, farm rented to a cropper. Last pic, hard to see, but it is the farm acrossed the road from the last pic , barn collapsed, cash cropper bought this farm too. BIG OLD BARNS ARE GOING FAST. So Iam going to start taking some pic's of them , beforethey just become a memorey. Bruce







 

[rrlund]

Looks like a lot of them over on this side of the lake.
 

[Paul from MI]

Man, if those old barns could talk they'd have us remembering for the next millenium. Sad to see them go down, but it's happening here too.
 

[JD PHIL]

The first pic's, bet that was a big dairy operation in the day. Thanks for sharing!
 

[JOB]

My cousin did dairy but sold his cattle a couple of years ago. His idea is to do cash crops. His farm is just north of Milaca, MN. Had about two inches of topsoil and a lot of rock. I would bet he gets a 1/4 of the yields of the farms south of the twin cities. I suppose he got tired of milking.
 

[farmer boy]

Far too common in eastern Ontario. I don't really know what happened there, but it seems that farming took a dump 20-30 years ago. Only a few guys stayed in it, but the cash cropping seems to be recovering. Looked at alot of farms out there, different model of farming out there it seems. Your barns(that you've shown previously) are some really nice barns, and from what I've seen of Eastern Ontario(quite a bit for a guy from SW Ontario) they're out of place. Looks like they belong in sw Ontario. Do you stick to the dairy or do you have any beef or veal? Where do people in the east bring their cattle? Seems to be alot of eastern cattle in Keady, Cookstown, and Brussels, but are there any sizable stock yards in the east?
 

[LenND]

It's sad to see those old buildings like that. Neighbor had a nice big dairy barn and he finally had to retire so switched to beef. Thought he would fix up the barn. For starters they wanted over ten thousand just to reroof it. The barn had to be raised to put in new footings another ten thousand. He built a new pole barn twice as big for same price. Tore the old one down. He figured total expense fixing old one would have been around $50,000 and still not suited for beef cattle. It just costs too much to fix the old ones. Too bad.
 

[tomturkey]

When haystacks went away and small squares became the norm, farmers needed that big hay mow to store feed. With big rounds and squares and high labor costs if you can find labor at all. Those structures just are not as useful as they were. Plus maintainence on any wooden structure has its limits. Still love seeing them they are grand feats of engineering and craftsmanship. gobble
 

[oldtanker]

Any of you guys really sad to see old barns in bad shape can donate to my barn projest!!! Ours is more that 100 years old and is kinda sad. I'm going to try to get some work done on it this summer if money allows.

Rick
 

[Bob Bancroft]

The east end of this barn that is valiantly hanging on was added by my great-grandfather in 1914.
I own most of the land that went with the place. A cousin owns the house/barn lot.

 

[Bob Bancroft]

That actually worked, so here's some more!


 

[Bruce from Can.]

Well farmer boy,I guess I should post a few pic's of well cared for barns in the area next time. Beef farmers started to quit in the time of BSE and cash croping filled the void. Same everywere, I guess. I only do dairy, we have 62 tie stall , and are starting next Monday to put in another 11 stalls. The Kawartha Comunity Coop is the name of our nearest sale barn, 2mile from my farm . Sale runs every Saturday. Cull cows stockers, calves, sheep, goats,and the odd pig. Lot of turbin heads from Toronto, come to buy sheep,lambs and goats.They run special bred cow or stocker sales thruogh out the year, as well as machien consinment sales. So we are lucky, folks will come from60=70 miles away to sell/ buy stock. Cookstown is another option for us, but almost two hour drive away,same buyers, diffrent day, what is to gain? Bruce
 

[Bruce from Can.]

Heres a pic I took last year of the barn on the farm where i was raised. Dad's will stated that the farm was to be sold , and money divided amoung the 5 of us, and it was sold in 2010. I still rent the farm, though it is 30 mile away. Barn was built before my great grand dad bought the place in 1903. Dad always told me it was built in 1855. And his grand dad had it raised and a stone wall put under the barn in 1905. Bruce


 

[farmer boy]

You're not as far east as I thought. I was thinking more like Peterborugh to Perth. You're closer to Port Perry if you're only 2 hours from Cookstown. I've seen cattle from Quebec in Keady, I can't really figure out how it's worth shipping them here. Guys tend to be careful around eastern cattle, so any premium that Keady or Brussels brings on western cattle usually doesn't apply to eastern cattle. I still have trouble understanding cattle farming in the east. Must be a REALLY tough business.
 

[60 acre hillside]

Our county assessor loves these old barns. The base is determined by the cost to build new. Lack of usefulness is not a consideration