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MANTORVILLE, Minn. - At 5 a.m. on Tuesday, March 24, Rick Pagel - farm manager at Johnan Holsteins - received a call any dairy producer would dread.

"I couldn't believe we had a (barn) fire," Pagel said.

The 58-stall tiestall barn holding 56 cows on the Johnan Holsteins farm, owned by John and Nancy Bierbaum, started on fire sometime in the early morning before 5. Two employees who arrived at 4:50 a.m. saw the blaze and called Pagel, who then called the assistant herdsman, Nate Heeren, who lives on the farm site.

"When he (Pagel) called me, he only told me there was a fire at the farm," Heeren said. "I never thought it would be the barn."

Heeren rushed outside to assist the other two employees.

"I went around the corner and 10 foot flames were shooting from the haymow," he said. "My mind went to one thing and one thing only - to save the cows."

Heeren said the smoke made it hard to see in the barn, but he and the other two employees worked to get the cows out.

"None of the cows fought with me to get out. It's like they knew they had to go and went straight for the door," Heeren said. "We had the full barn out in under eight minutes."

Pagel, who lives off the farm site nearly 10 miles away, arrived as quickly as he could. By the time he drove in, the cows were outside and safe. Pagel and Heeren each went separate ways to save other items on the farm - Pagel to the office for the embryo transfer and registration papers and Heeren to get equipment out of the fire-path and to close a shed to prevent the fire from spreading. The two then worked at keeping the fire away from a specialty barn housing 12 cows not far from the tiestall.

"We used a garden hose to save the boxstall barn until the fire department got there," Pagel said. "We were thankful the wind was going away from us, otherwise it probably would have taken the boxstall barn, too."

Fire departments from Kasson, Byron, West Concord and Pine Island were called to the scene to put out the flames.

Pagel said the construction of the barn made the outcome of the day better than it could have been. The barn, built in the late 1970s, was made to be fire proof, using precast concrete slabs and block walls.

"It's what saved this barn full of cows," Pagel said. "The ceiling didn't collapse in on them."

The fire stayed up in the empty haymow and couldn't make it down to the tiestall area. Pagel also said the fire didn't touch his office he was in the process of constructing, supposedly where the fire started because of an electrical source. However, the fire marshal is still determining the source of the fire.

In addition to the barn, the fire also damaged the feed room area including the TMR mixer, a tractor and the four silos.

The rest of the day, Pagel, Heeren and the other two employees were figuring out details for the cows. But they didn't do it alone.

"The outpour from other people was amazing," Pagel said about the 60 people who showed up to lend a hand. "When I look back on the day, I start wondering where all the people came from to help."

Cows were milked that morning in the boxstall barn with portable milkers brought by friends and neighbors. A neighboring barn, which had been empty for six years, became the new home for the 56 cows from the tiestall. Most of the equipment was still in place and after about six hours of maintenance, clean-up and an inspection, the barn was up and running. Evening milking started by 7:30.

Heeren said the last few days have been hectic, but he said the cows are starting to get back into a schedule. And although it was tragic to lose the barn, Pagel said he's glad the outcome hadn't been worse.

"The most important thing is that we didn't lose any cows," Pagel said.[[In-content Ad]]

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