-Farm News photo by Clayton Rye
ABOVE: The barn on Roger Witte's farm, built by his grandfather more than 100 years ago, remains in excellent condition.

ROCKWELL — The barn on Roger Witte’s farm was built by his grandfather Albert Witte in 1920. Albert Witte passed away in 1941.

The barn is 38-by-80 feet and is 50 feet to the peak and required 64 squares of shingles to cover the roof.

It apparently became a local landmark, because according to Roger Witte, people were told to “look for the place with the big, white barn” when giving directions.

The lumber to build the barn was brought in by rail car, and Albert Witte hand-sorted the lumber before taking it home. Any lumber that he refused went back on the rail car.

Sand for the concrete was hauled to the farm site on a wooden-wheeled wagon.

-Farm News photo by Clayton Rye
Roger Witte stands in his barn's haymow, a place he knows well.

To bring the bales into the mow required 270 feet of 7/8 inch rope for the bale carrier in the haymow. Roger Witte knows this because he has replaced it twice. Orville Witte, Roger’s father, had the rope dragged up and down the driveway several times to make sure it was straight.

“Dad wanted to make sure the kinks were out of it,” said Roger Witte.

Roger Witte then climbed the ladder to a bench in the top of the haymow to string the rope. It is 35 feet from the haymow floor to the peak of the roof.

“Then you threaded it through and made sure you had a good knot at the end,” said Roger Witte.

The hay mow had a layer of eight hay bales or 10 straw bales on the hay mow floor. This helped prevent damage to the joists from the falling bales when they were released from the bale carrier while filling the mow with bales.

“We cracked a few over the years,” said Roger Witte.

He remembers the haymow so full of bales he could do chin ups on the bale carrier track located at the roof’s peak.

The large haymow door faces east, so a strong east wind made it difficult to open the door. The door’s size made it difficult to close and required two men pulling for all they were worth. Once it was past center, it was easy.

When the barn was new, there was room for 16 milk cows and 12 draft horses with pens for calves and colts. Now the barn has 17 cows with calves. Goats and sheep that serve as 4-H projects are also kept in the barn.

A shed on the barn’s west end is used for shelter for the cattle and is also where they are fattened.

One unique feature of the barn is the staircase that gives access to the haymow. The staircase is hinged at the top and, when raised, opens to a barn door that leads to the outside. The staircase even has a counter weight filled with sand that makes it easy to lift. This was all part of Albert Witte’s design when the barn was built.

Roger Witte says the barn is in almost as good of shape as when it was new over 100 years ago.

“In a strong wind, you can hear it creak a little bit,” said Roger Witte.

He supervised a crew who put on a steel roof recently. Because of the barn’s size, it is easy to misjudge the size of the steel cupolas on the roof. They are 8 feet tall.