Ben Herda, right, holds his sons, Kasey, 6, left, and Kallen, 4, not in the photograph, as they watch one of their family’s silos come down at the Herda farm on Wednesday. Firefighters stood by in case the fire rekindled itself when the silos came down.
When Ben Herda took over his family’s century-old dairy farm in Wheatland in 2007 there were only 12 milking cows left, little more than when his great-grandfather Bernard founded the farm in 1908.
The fourth-generation farmer grew the number to 50 and in 2015 welcomed the community to the farm for the annual Dairy Breakfast to see the fruits of his labor and share their blessings.
He fought the market. He battled Mother Nature. He smiled with pride as he watched his two young boys play in the same barn he did as a child.
On Tuesday, he watched that barn burn to the ground.
Wednesday, he held his children tight as they watched the still smoldering silos, erected by his grandfather, get torn down.
“I don’t have the right words,” Herda said, adding he is overwhelmed by the support of the local dairy community that came out in numbers to help transport the herd to a neighboring farm.
“It could have been a lot worse,” he said. “A lot worse.”
The original milking parlor, added onto over the years, and the cattle barn are a total loss. The fire also damaged a portion of the house.
Firefighters on standby
Wheatland Fire Chief Lou Denko said the department returned to the farm Wednesday on standby in case the felling of the silos reignited the fire.
“We used to climb the rungs of the silo and get on the roof of the barn to hide when we did something to make mom mad,” Rachael Crane, Ben’s sister, recalled while looking at the ruins. “We knew she wouldn’t come up there.”
She said at least six farm families came with cattle trailers to help relocate the herd.
“Ben didn’t even have to make a phone call,” she said. “People just showed up.”
Neighbor takes in herd
Neighboring farmer Mark Wilson “was kind enough” to the take the cows and make sure they are milked, she said.
“He had room in his barn and enough feed,” she said. “We are really lucky to have such wonderful neighbors.”
“I could see the smoke from here,” Wilson, who lives a few miles away in Burlington, said. “I knew something was going on.”
He was planting oats when another farmer called to let him know it was a barn fire.
The Wilsons have 250 of their own dairy cows. Mark’s wife Jennifer said they made some room by moving some of their dry cows into the pasture.
The two herds are being kept and milked separately for accountability reasons.
“It’s going to work out,” Mark said. “You gotta do what you gotta do to help someone out.”
Crane said she fears what this devastating of a loss could mean for the future of the farm.
“The dairy industry is really experiencing depressed prices right now,” she said. “There are tough choices ahead.”
Source: kenoshanews.com
