The Day it All Went Down in Flames
The day started out like any other. It was a very cold and icy day in February. There had been a lot of freezing rain over the last 12 hours, so the goal of the day was to carefully get chores done and go back home. No matter the weather, the cows need to be fed.
Joe and Troy started the day out like any other. They got out the tractor and TMR wagon to mix feed for the beef and dairy cows their silage. What normally takes 3 hours took almost double that day due to the slick conditions. Once those cows were fed, it was on to graining chores. This is when 5-gallon buckets of a mix of ground corn, gluten and other nutrients are fed to mostly young livestock.
Finally, around Noon after slipping and sliding all morning, they were done with chores and headed back to their homes. Tory headed into a school Christmas program for his kids and Joe went home and had some lunch.
Then a little after 1:30 p.m. a man knocked on the house door that changed everything. A man had stop to let Joe know the barn was on fire and that he had already called the fire department.
Joe dropped everything and rushed to see what was happening. The driveway was all ice so the couple hundred-yard walk seemed to happen in slow motion. He could see flames coming out of the shed which contained two trucks, a four-wheeler and many tools and equipment. All Joe could do was wait, watch and hope it didn’t catch the building next to it on fire.
He also began the phone tree to let them know what had happened. Knowing Troy was at a family function, Joe called his brother Paul, who unknowingly was at the same Christmas program. Upon hearing the news, Troy and Paul immediately headed back to the farm. Soon Shelley, Amber, Jill and the rest of the family also knew what they were dealing with.
Soon the Baldwin, Maquoketa, Andrew, Delmar, and Bernard volunteer fire departments were on the very slippery scene. Troy was in the tractor getting sand to try and provide some traction for the firefighters as they battled the flames. Soon word had gotten out around the neighborhood as well and many came to help in any way they could. Dressed in their insulated coveralls, heavy coats, hats and gloves the family and neighborhood just watched, waited and prayed for a good outcome.
As the crews were still fighting flames, it came time to go milk the dairy cows. Normally Joe would do the milking, but he and Troy were still trying to help the fire departments get the fire under control. So Amber went down to the next part of the farm and began milking. Even in an emergency, the cows have to be milked.
The fire took many hours to put out. The shed and everything it in and a small wooden self-feeder for calves in the pen next to the shed was gone. It was a stark contrast of black charred remnants against the ice and snow. One by one each of the neighbors provided some words of encouragement and offered to help in anyway they could.
Soon it was just Joe and Troy left, staring at the pile of ashes and ice and wondering how they would do chores in the morning because the trucks they used to feed cattle with had just been lost. Farmers aren’t new to finding creative solutions, but they truly just needed a moment to soak in what had just happened.
The next morning it began like any other, Joe got up at 4 a.m. to go milk the cows and Troy arrived around 7:30 a.m. to help feed cows. They used their trucks that they normally have for their family, not the farm, until they were able to find different farm trucks.
It took days for it to all really sink in, but honestly, it became a great opportunity for the farm to think how we could better use the space we had. A new, larger machine shed took the place where the ashes once sat. The cattle yard next to the old building was reorganized a bit. Then another building connected to the cattle yard was torn down and turned into a cattle working area which honestly, gets used every day for one reason or another.
We are so thankful for the damage was not worse, that we had such great help from the firefighters and neighbors during that time and we got the opportunity to rethink a few things on the farm. It also taught us you can never be too prepared for something to happen.
Welcome to our farm stories!
We are the Heinrich Family (and more!) and we want to share how we are growing our farm one generation at a time. Together as a family we raise corn, soybeans, oats, alfalfa, dairy, beef and more!
Heinrich Farms 