Engineering Notes Index

Minnesota/Wisconsin Engineering Notes
Spring 1998

Tornado and Wind-Damaged Farmsteads

Larry Jacobson, Kevin Janni, and Bill Wilcke, Minnesota Extension Engineers

Nearly every year in the upper Midwest, a number of unfortunate farm families experience the destructive forces associated with tornadoes or high winds. In a matter of minutes, these storms can damage or completely destroy homes, livestock buildings, storage buildings, windbreaks, and grain handling systems that it took generations to establish.

Individual reactions to these kinds of losses vary, but many people experience shock and extreme stress, and they need time to go through a grieving process. Even though there is a tendency to repair, rebuild, and replant, and get on with life as soon as possible, the first few days after a devastating loss is probably not the optimum time to make important, long-term decisions.

In the first hours and days after a storm, after immediate personal and family needs are taken care of, the family whose farm has been damaged and the volunteers who are helping them should start making provisions for caring for livestock and for preventing further loss to salvageable feed, grain, and equipment. But it might be best to avoid making irreversible decisions and instead, try to do things that will buy time to do the planning and information gathering necessary for making long-term decisions. For example:

• Instead of immediately deciding to sell the dairy cows after the parlor is destroyed, maybe it would be possible to temporarily place the cows on other dairy farms.
• Rather than immediately rebuilding a damaged swine finishing building on the old foundation, consider erecting hoop houses or adapting other solid floor buildings for swine production. In situations where storm damage is widespread, it can be difficult to get materials and builders right away, so using simple facilities that you can construct yourself might make the most sense.
• Instead of immediately selling grain from a damaged bin at a low price, perhaps it could be stored at a neighbor's farm for a few months.

After immediate needs are met and initial clean-up is completed, it is time to start thinking about the future and making longer-term decisions. This might be a good opportunity to reassess family goals. If the family decides that they are quite satisfied with the farm operation and quality of life that they had before the storm, they can start rebuilding a similar type of operation. But if the previous operation had some shortcomings and quality of life goals were not being met, it could be time to make some changes to part or all of the operation. Here is a long list of questions that might be asked during the planning process:

• Which farm enterprises were the most and least profitable? Would you like to expand the more profitable and shrink or eliminate the least profitable?
• If you had an operation that required lots of labor, would you rather rebuild a more automated system that requires less labor? Or, if you had an expensive, automated system, are you willing to replace it with a less expensive system that requires more labor and management? Are you interested in switching from confinement to a pasture-based system, or vice versa?
• Are there problems with the current farmstead site (environmental or drainage problems, not enough space, poor traffic flow) and would it be better to start over at a new site?
• Was the windbreak in the right position relative to driveways, buildings, and feedlots?
• Should facilities be repaired or completely replaced? (In general, if repairs to damaged facilities cost more than two-thirds the cost of new facilities, it's probably better to tear down the old facilities and build new ones.)
• Were the old facilities in the right place, or would it be better to put them in a new spot?
• Were the old facilities the right size, or is it time to expand, or to down-size?
• Were you satisfied with the old manure handling system, or is it time to switch to a new system that is more convenient or less expensive or more environmentally sound?
• Was the old feeding system appropriate? Could you switch from dry grain to high-moisture grain or more forage? Would bunker silos be a good replacement for tower silos, or vice versa?
• Did your old grain handling system provide the quality, capacity, and energy efficiency you like? Would a different type of grain drying and cooling system work better?
• For families that raised animals, did you really enjoy working with animals? Would you rather quit raising animals, or perhaps start raising a different kind of animal?

Many of these questions are difficult to answer, so take your time and gather as much information as you can. Visit other farms, contact Extension personnel and other information providers, get bids from several contractors, and consider hiring consultants. A $500 to $1,000 investment for planning services could save you lots of headaches and thousands of dollars in the long run.

Midwest Plan Service (MWPS) publications are a good source of general planning information for farmsteads, livestock facilities, and grain handling systems. Click here for information on ordering MWPS publications.

This page is part of the Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Department web at http://www.bae.umn.edu/