More than 700 attend Barnyard Bash

FAIRFIELD – Maasdam Barns in Fairfield was the sight of hundreds of smiling faces Friday, Aug. 23, during the 2019 Barnyard Bash.

The event is a celebration of the community's rich agricultural heritage featuring the horse-drawn carriages of yesteryear paired with the most sophisticated farm equipment of the present day. It was put on by the Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by the Jefferson County Farm Bureau and Pilot Grove Savings Bank.

Chamber director Darien Sloat estimated that at least 700 people attended the event, more than double the number that attended last year. He said he was pleasantly surprised by the attendance considering that Fairfield and surrounding schools were holding fall sports scrimmages at the same time.

'I thought people might leave early, but they hung around,” he said.

Tony Webb, chairman of the Maasdam Barns Preservation Committee, said the event was 'fantastic.”

'We had great community support, and I especially liked seeing young families with children,” he said. 'There were a lot of new faces at the barns. Everybody had a good time.”

Webb commended the many individuals and organizations that made the evening a success, such as Libertyville Savings Bank for sponsoring the horse-drawn wagon, the Jefferson County Cattlemen and Jefferson County Pork Producers for setting up food booths, and countless others. Bill Fisher of the local tractor club enlisted tractor enthusiasts from places such as Fairfield, Mt. Pleasant, Ottumwa, Brighton, and Montezuma to drive their implements to the celebration. Doug Smith quite literally 'took the reins” of organizing the draft horses that pulled the wagon and surrey.

Webb was on the team that demonstrated the Louden Hay Trolley, invented in Fairfield by the Louden Machinery Company to lift hay bales into a barn. Webb and Lynn Lauritsen secured the bales to the rig; Will Heckart drove the tractor attached to the rig that pulled the bales up to the second floor; and Leon Connelly stood in the loft to guide the bales to their final destination.

Sights

One of the favorite booths at the bash, especially for young children, was the Heart for Hooves petting zoo from Toddville, Iowa. The petting zoo consists of rescued animals such as a miniature pony and a llama. According to Beth Miner of Heart for Hooves, the llama was heavily pregnant when she came to the barns, ready to have her cria not just in a matter of days but a matter of hours. Miner said the baby would stay with the petting zoo.

The petting zoo also included an Angora goat, rabbit, two ducklings and seven chicks. It normally includes a cow, but she wasn't there because she was home resting with her calf, born two weeks prior. The potbellied pig that is also a fixture of the pens was missing in action because she, too, had just given birth to a litter of piglets.

Air Evac Lifeteam of Fort Madison flew its helicopter to Fairfield and landed in a lawn just north of the barns. Medical crew member Amanda Kane said her company's helicopter contains every piece of medical equipment an ambulance does, and can reach hospitals in a fraction of the time. She said the helicopter's top speed is 120 miles an hour, and can cut what would otherwise be two hours of highway driving into a flight lasting only 30 minutes.

Tracy Vance of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office educated members of the public about the trailer on loan from the Iowa Narcotics Officers Association. The trailer is a mock-up of a typical teenager's room. Except in this room, many seemingly harmless items – from pop cans, water bottles, hair brushes to even fake cell phones – have been altered to hide drugs or alcohol. The trailer is an educational tool for parents to spot the ways in which their children could be hiding a drug habit.

Melvin Diehl, a member of Jefferson County Farm Bureau, brought his John Deere S770 combine that's only a year old. The combine has a head that can harvest eight rows of corn or about 12-13 rows of beans. It's very different from the combines Diehl used when he began farming some 40 years ago. It's equipped with auto-steer, a refrigerator and the most comfortable seat you'll find.

'I basically live in it for two months,” Diehl said. 'It's great. It takes the place of several combines.”

Diehl said modern combines are more fuel efficient than those of decades ago. His current combine burns less than 1 gallon of fuel per acre, compared to the combines of 40 years ago that burned 3-4 gallons an acre.