Snowstorm brings disaster to northeast Wisconsin farm

CASCO, Wis. — The massive winter storm that swept over Wisconsin March 15-16 caused particular trouble for a dairy farm in Kewaunee County. Around 9:30 a.m. on the 15th, the holding area at Junion Homestead Farm caved in from the pressure of the snow that had quickly accumulated on top of the structure.

“Nobody ever plans for that stuff, but it happens,” Anthony Knorn said. “That’s the thing with storms, you can’t pick where they hit, you just have to carry on and do the best you can, take it one day at a time. We were blessed that nobody was hurt.”

Knorn and his family milk 250 cows near Casco on a farm that has been in their family for nearly 160 years.

The blizzard that Sunday was like no other Knorn recalls seeing in the area.

“It’s just unbelievable the amount of snow that came in one storm,” he said.

Because of the wind, Knorn said it was hard to tell how much snow they had at the time of the collapse, but he heard reports that his area received 24-30 inches total. He said the snow was accompanied by 45-55-mph wind gusts that created drifts more than 5 feet tall.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a snowstorm like this with all that wind,” Knorn said. “Around 9:00, I was cleaning out in front of the milk house, and I looked up on that roof and it looked like there was 3-4 feet of snow. The way the wind was blowing, there’s no way you’re going to go up and shovel. You hope for the best. I didn’t think it was going to collapse.”

The timing was fortunate because  milking had concluded, and all cows were back in the barn. Two of Knorn’s daughters, Amanda and Mikayla, were finishing up with calves and heard a crash. Moments before the collapse, Mikayla was going to walk through the barn and holding area to get supplies but decided to go outside and walk around instead to the front door of the parlor.

“That’s when she heard the noise,” Knorn said. “If she had gone the other way, she could have been in the holding area when it collapsed.”

Knorn had gone into the house for breakfast 15 minutes before it happened. Nobody witnessed the actual collapse; however, Knorn said they later watched footage on the barn’s cameras of it coming down.

“The first half of the holding area by the barn  is what fell in, and when it collapsed, the third truss started to come down and pulled the nails out,” he said. “We put the nails back in so it wouldn’t come down later. We tried to keep that part standing.”

The wind, which was coming out of the east, was a culprit in the destruction of the holding area. Knorn said snow was blowing off the roof of the east/west-facing barn onto the holding area’s roof, where it continued piling up.

“The wind was blowing so hard you could hardly stand straight; it was pushing you around,” Knorn said.

The family and a few neighbors spent the day cleaning up the wreckage and were finished in time for the evening milking. The walls of the holding area remained standing, making it usable for the time being, but the new appearance of the space startled the cows at first.

“They were a little leery and skittish about going in and out because the roof was open and wind was blowing in on them,” Knorn said. “With the weather getting milder, it doesn’t bother them too much now.”

A piece of insulation the Knorns could not reach was blowing in the breeze, scaring cows coming out of the parlor.

“Eventually, we had to go up and get that pulled down,” Knorn said. “They’re curious animals; they’re always looking at something. That Monday night and Tuesday morning, it was down to about 4 degrees. It started warming up, and a lot of the snow that was freezing in the holding area from the roof being gone is thawing out now.”

The holding area was built in 2007 when the Knorns’ first compost-bedded pack barn and parlor were built. Plans to rebuild the holding area are underway.

“The contractors looked at it and are going to take 12 more feet of the roof off and remove the third, twisted truss, so we’ll end up with about three-quarters of the holding area open for a while,” Knorn said. “They’re going to put in an extra truss closer to the barn to help carry the load and make it stronger than it was, so hopefully this won’t happen again.”

Knorn said their project is on the builder’s priority list, but they have to wait for the OK from the insurance company before proceeding.

“We have a lot of people calling and wishing us well, and we appreciate all the community support,” Knorn said. “We were fortunate that we’re all safe and everything is going forward again. You don’t like these kinds of setbacks, but I guess they happen to somebody, somewhere. That’s why you have insurance and hopefully everything will turn out fine when we’re done.”