-Farm News photo by Clayton Rye
This stall was a horse stall when new and is indicative of much of the barn's original interior. The worn boards show many years of use by livestock.

TITONKA — The year was 1937 and Everet Post had a decision to make.

The owner of two barns, Post had one in need of repair and another that was too far gone for repairs. A local carpenter offered to take down the barn in bad shape and use the lumber to rebuild the other barn. “I’ll build it for $700,” the carpenter said.

The deal was made and when the barn was completed, Everet Post had a barn with stanchions for dairy on the west side and stalls for horses on the east side.

Everet Post is David Post’s grandfather. David and his wife Sherri now live on the farm once owned by his grandfather.

Later, an addition was built onto the west side to allow more dairy cattle to be milked. The north side had an addition built in 1979, providing a shed for the cattle.

-Farm News photo by Clayton Rye
Much of David Post's barn remains in its original condition since 1937 when it was built. The addition between the barn and silo was added when the decision was made to increase the size of the dairy. The steel roof and sliding haymow were added after a strong storm in 1991 damaged the roof and haymow door.

When the creamery stopped picking up canned milk in 1973, a bulk tank was added to the dairy operation. The Post’s farm continued in the dairy business until 1990 when the creamery in Northrup, Minnesota, stopped picking up milk. That shut down dairying on several neighborhood farms, according to David Post.

Once the dairying ended, the barn was converted so it could be used to raise hogs. Farrowing was done in a separate hog house. The hog enterprise ended when the cash price for market hogs was eight cents a pound in the 1990s.

After the hogs came to an end, the cattle part of the farm was built up with 100 stock cows that would calve in May. The Posts fed out the steers and kept a few heifers for themselves for breeding purposes.

Post recalls baling 100 acres of hay with his father Erwin Post and his father’s two brothers, along with David’s three brothers and three cousins. The haymow is still used to store small square bales. Post has continued with cattle on the farm, only on a smaller scale. He currently has 15 cows, always Shorthorn cattle. “There have been cattle on this farm since 1929 when Grandpa moved here,” said Post.

The barn’s old milk room is where Sherri Post keeps her chickens. She has 30 week-old chicks now in a stock tank with a heat lamp. The chickens provide eggs, which she sells to customers on the farm.

-Farm News photo by Clayton Rye
The sign over David Post's shoulder hangs in the barn in honor of his father. Golden Sun Feeds was once a popular feed business and is no longer around.

The barn interior remains original for the most part. The horse stalls remain, with the biggest change being the removal of the stanchions to create a pen for hogs.

The most recent change to the barn occurred when a strong storm in 1991 wrecked the haymow door and destroyed much of the roof’s shingles. When the repairs were done, there was a new steel roof on the barn and the haymow door was replaced with a sliding door on rollers.