They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but what's said for a 100+ year old barn that's been used to milk cattle up until the 40s, stall horses and, for the past several decades, house beef cattle. While a few changes and updates have been made, the barn has withstood the test of time.
For today's cattle operation, the barn at our second farm is functional, is not modern by any means. Cattle find reprieve from the weather, a cool place to lay in summer's heat and a warm place to hide when the snow flies and wind chill cuts through the air.
As far as handling cattle, the barn needs a little reorganization to create efficiencies and a safer envirnoment for all. Our plans include an organized chute system for checking cattle and loading cattle and adding an additional outdoor pen and barn space for calving season.
Many evenings, one or two of us or else the whole crew heads over to the other farm, works on the barn during the cool evening hours in hopes to manage to teach the old barn some new tricks.