Fire destroys Guttmanns’ barn, parlor

WEST BEND, Wis. — The skyline at Guttmann Dairy LLC is forever changed. In the space once occupied by a red and white barn that anchored the farm stands a charred silo, scarred by a recent catastrophe.

On the morning of June 22, a fire broke out in the barn that housed the milking parlor, and flames quickly enveloped the entire building.

“It’s a dairy farmer’s worst nightmare,” John Guttmann said. “It’s your livelihood. But the family is OK, and the cows are being well-cared for. The outpouring from the community has been amazing.”

John and his sons, Huntz and Jake, milk 175 cows and farm about 600 acres near West Bend.

Huntz and Jake are volunteer firefighters at the Fillmore Fire Department, where Huntz is assistant chief. At 4:45 a.m., Jake’s pager went off notifying him of a fire.

“I see that it’s my address, and I’m like, ‘Holy crap, what’s going on?’” Jake said. “I was on my way downstairs because I heard something and couldn’t figure out what it was. There was also somebody knocking on the door trying to wake someone up to tell us there was a fire. Then I knew what that noise was; it was electrical shorting.”

A guy heading to work saw the fire and called it in before stopping to tell the Guttmanns the bad news. Neighbors saw the smoke, and with many in the area on the fire department, word spread faster than the fire, Jake said.

“Vehicles were coming from here, there, everywhere,” he said. “When we decided to move the cows, there were trailers lined up on the road as soon as we made the call. They came from Port Washington to the other side of Kewaskum.”

Twelve fire departments fought the blaze that resulted in a complete loss of the barn, but no people or animals were hurt in the fire.

“We want to thank the fire departments,” John said. “The volunteers were awesome.”

The stanchion barn was where John and his wife, Annette, housed their cows when they bought the farm in 1994. In 2006, the Guttmann family converted the barn into a swing-10 milking parlor and holding area where cows were milked twice a day. No cows were in the barn that morning as milking had not yet started.

“We’re usually in the barn by 6:00 to feed calves and then begin milking,” Jake said.

The fire started in the corner of the milkhouse by the electrical panels. When Jake stepped outside, flames started to roll out of the entryway.

“At that point, it was probably going up the inside of the siding in the barn,” he said.  “When I heard the sparking, the first thing I did was kill the power, thinking maybe it would stop the fire, but it was already in the wood by then. You want to try and run in and do something, but you couldn’t even get close; it was getting so hot, and I couldn’t really see inside because of all the flames.”

After learning about the fire, Jake immediately called his dad, who lives several miles away.

“When I came up the road, fire was shooting out of the old-fashioned cupolas we had on the top of the barn,” John said.

At that point, the Guttmanns said they knew the barn was gone. Shortly thereafter, the whole barn fell in on itself. The cause of the fire is believed to be electrical.

Backing for the Guttmanns from the farming community and beyond was immense.

“The Elbe family at Golden E Dairy Farms were so quick to bring up all their machinery — mini excavators, a big excavator, payloaders, track loaders — anything we needed, and most of it’s still here,” Jake said. “That’s huge. We can use the equipment and get the job done quickly, efficiently and safely.”

Bob Roden and his family at Roden Echo Valley LLC took in the Guttmanns’ entire herd.

“They had room and they had downtime in their parlor,” Jake said. “The plan is they will keep the cows until we can rebuild and get functioning again. By 8-8:30, the trailers were here, and by 10:30, all the cows were gone. At noon, the Rodens called and said they had all gone through their parlor already.”

Huntz checks on the cows every day during the 2 a.m. milking. The Guttmanns are also taking feed to the Rodens’ farm until their corn and protein are gone.

“My first job in the morning is to mix cow feed, load it on a truck and haul it down there,” John said.

Calves on milk were sent to the Elbes’ farm so they could continue being fed pasteurized milk.

John said they received phone calls from farm families all the way from Fort Atkinson to Fond du Lac.

“People asked, ‘What can we do?’ and told us if we needed something, we should call,” John said. “A neighbor lady came with one loaf of bread. She said, ‘I didn’t know what to do, so I baked you a loaf of bread.’”

Jake’s cousin, Andy, stayed the whole week after the fire to help clean up. He previously worked in construction and was familiar with operating the excavators and other heavy equipment.

“We can run it all, but he was a lot more efficient and precise,” Jake said. “A local scrap yard had dumpsters out here right away that we could load all the sheet metal into.”

As they look to rebuild, the Guttmanns said they are strongly considering robotics, after having done extensive research on the technology from 2019 to 2021.

“It was still a goal, and now it’s being accelerated,” Jake said. “We’re looking at conventional parlors too, but we’re definitely leaning towards robots.”

As the Guttmann family deals with the setback of losing a central piece of their farm, they are preparing to start over.

“We want to express our sincere thanks and gratitude to all those who have helped and reached out,” John said. “You hear about barn fires all the time, but you never think it’s going to be your own. It’s been a humbling experience. I tell my wife, other farm families have gotten through this, and we will too.”