By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The largest dairy farm in Lewis County lost 80 tons of hay and a $100,000 tractor in a Thanksgiving night fire but owner Leo Zylstra was calmly practical when he spoke of the damage today.
“It’s very inconvenient but we’ll pull through it,” Zylstra said. “It’s part of life I guess.”
The Misty Morning Dairy in Onalaska was able to get organized quickly and by 10 o’clock the next morning had replaced the hay, Zylstra said.
They milk 1,300 animals, so it was about four days of feed that were destroyed, he said.
He has insurance, he said.
Fifteen to 20 firefighters from Salkum, Onalaska and Mossyrock responded to the approximately 6:30 p.m. call on Thursday.
The original information was a tractor was on fire but when the first unit arrived, flames were rolling across the top of the commodities shed, a large three-sided building where the feed is stored, according to Lewis County Fire District 8 Assistant Chief Don Taylor.
They had to fight to keep it contained to the portion of the barn that was farthest away from the adjacent cows’ quarters, according to Taylor.
Zylstra said he didn’t lose any animals.
Crews were on the scene until 5:30 a.m. the next day pulling out and extinguishing the smoldering feed, most of it expensive alfalfa, according to Taylor.
Zylstra, who was in Arizona for the holiday but has returned home, was so appreciative for the all-night effort by the fire departments.
“That would have been really bad if it got into the loafing shed, that would have been a disaster,” he said.
Zylstra said the hay costs $200 per ton.
He said the large field tractor that burned was a 290 HP machine, probably valued at about $100,000. Somehow the grain grinder attached to it was undamaged, Zylstra said. Workers were grinding grain when the fire broke out, he said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Misty Morning Dairy sits on 700 acres on the 800 block of Jorgensen Road.
It’s an operation that milks 24 hours a day with 20 employees. The Zylstras bought the dairy in 1980.
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Note from news reporter Sharyn Decker: Zylstra purchased the dairy in 1980 from Floyd and Vi Decker. Floyd Decker was a cousin of my father’s.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter