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Madison N.Y. — The Wratten farm was founded in 1971 after Stanley and Shirley Wratten lost a farm in a fire.
In the 54 years since, the family dairy farm has grown to about 1,000 acres, adding a barn, fields of crops, a small growing herd of beef stock and a handful of silos.
They carefully breed their cows, selecting the best bloodlines, to develop the best milk producers.
On a cold Sunday morning in February, the same barn Stanley Wratten built himself was lost in a fire, along with 125 dairy cows.
“All the dairy cows are gone. The barn is gone, the milking equipment. Everything’s a total loss,” said one of Stanley’s son, Steve Wratten.
After two generations of dairy farming, this fire left the family wondering if they will continue in the dairy business.
Huge flames, barn on fire
Steve Wratten, 70, the eldest of the three Wratten boys, got the call that the barn was on fire around 2 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 16.
It was a neighbor who lives up the road who saw the fire first, Steve said. When the neighbor had gotten up that night, light from the fire was illuminating their living room, he said.
“He looked out his living room window and from his place he couldn’t tell whether the house was on fire or the barn,” he said. “But he could see the 70-foot silos and the flames were almost to the top of them.”
The fire had started around midnight. The fire had been going for over two hours before it was first reported at 2:10 a.m.
When firefighters arrived, they were able to prevent the fire from spreading to a barn in the back where the farm’s beef cattle and a few dairy calves yet to produce milk were kept. There were about 170 beef cattle in the barn, Steve said.
It took firefighters two hours to put out the fire, according to Noah Nassimos, the chief of the Madison Fire Department.
There were 125 cows in the main barn when it caught fire. The family assumes the cows died from smoke inhalation long before the flames and heat got to them, Steve said.
Decades building the best herd
In 1971, Stanley and Shirley Wratten bought about 300 acres in Madison after their barn and house in Morrisville were lost in a fire. A year later, Stanley moved a herd of dairy cows into a barn he built himself a little way off Water Street.
Stanley died in 2016. His son Gene Wratten, 64, who has worked on the farm since he was a teen, is now the caretaker along with his brother, Kenneth Wratten.
The cows that died in the fire were raised by Gene. He declined through his family to be interviewed for this story.
He spent his life caring for the cows, said his niece and Steve’s daughter, Kate Wratten-McDowell.
“They select the best bloodlines from within their herd, and those are the ones that they achieved that herd growth from,” she said.
Wratten-McDowell said she felt sick when she saw the barn destroyed.
“But it’s something different for Gene,” she said. “It was his whole life. For those who don’t quite understand farms, there’s a lot of things that Gene has forgone in his life to operate this farm.”
The dairy cows were a closed herd, Wratten-McDowell said. Gene raised the female heifer calves as replacements for older cows that were no longer good producers, she said. The last time the farm bought cows was about 15 to 20 years ago.
“Every time he looks at the barn, he gets all upset,” Steve said.
Along with the cows, the farm also lost a tractor, a feed mixer (used to grind their own dry feed), a feed cart and more.
Fire investigators were able to view how the fire started from video cameras on the farm, said Kristian Wratten, Wratten-McDowell’s sister. They determined that the fire started either by a hot water heater that blew up or a panel electrical box, she said. They were both side by side.
The cleanup starts
Five days after the fire, the smoke still lingers in the air, and the animals remained in the barn.
Finally, around noon Feb. 21 they were given the OK to start cleaning up by their insurance company, Steve said.
A few volunteers helped remove the cows from the barn so they could be buried.
They’ll later have a contractor come in and clean out the scorched remains of the barn and throw away any hazardous materials, he said.
When the fire spread it also reached the two towering silos next to the barn. The silos that were once shiny gray are now charred brown.
The blocks at the bottom of the silo had cracked from the fire and firefighters were concerned about its stability, Steve said.
In fear of a collapse, they might have to tear it down. The tons of feed inside were ruined, he said.
“All of them cows, Gene would’ve been able to feed them probably until September or October before he got to the bottom,” he said.
To lose an entire herd was costly, Wratten-McDowell said.
“Unfortunately, the cows were a big loss,” she said. “That’s a very significant portion of what my family lost here Sunday morning, is the value of those cows.”
The barn, equipment and cattle that was lost in the fire will be covered by insurance, the family said. However, an estimate of how much isn’t available yet.
“The milk check paid the bills,” Wratten-McDowell said. “Thankfully, they’ve still got their cropland. They’ll still have crops to raise and if they’re not turning around and feeding some of those crops to the herd, they’re going to have some additional crops to sell.”
For the cleanup, the cost is coming out of pocket to rent equipment and Dumpsters and to hire a few helping hands. For this reason, the family has set up a GoFundMe campaign to help. So far over $22,000 has been raised.
Help arrives
The family has had many community members and fellow farmers step up and provide help.
The morning of the fire, by the time Steve got to the burning barn he said neighboring farmers were already there with tractors removing hay just in case it caught fire.
“Had the family lost the hay, they would have been faced with another decision of either sourcing the hay or not being able to feed the remaining animals, and ultimately having to sell them,” Wratten-McDowell said.
The hay will be used to feed the beef cattle.
As the family started to clean up the remains of the fire while still caring for the beef cattle, they also got many visitors offering help and food.
“We were out there trying to feed the animals that were out there, and a lady stopped by and had hot dinner. Brought it right in,” Steve said.
Every day a caring soul would drop off groceries, subs sandwiches, cookies, soup and more food for the family and those helping out.
“Just the outpour of support has been tremendous,” Wratten-McDowell said.
What’s next?
As the dairy barn and the family got older, they had considered transitioning away from dairy cows to raising only beef cattle.
“My two brothers run the farm,” Steve said. “They are 65 and 64. Farm work it’s a lot of brute force work, you know, and it’s taken a toll on their bodies over the years. They were talking of stopping, slowing down on the milking.”
The fire has now pushed the family into having to make the decision now, the same way a fire pushed Stanley Wratten to move and restart in Madison 54 years ago.
They will now focus on raising beef cattle.
“This fire isn’t the end of Wratten Farms,” Wratten-McDowell said. “I think we’re looking at it as more of a new beginning.”
Staff writer Timia Cobb covers breaking news. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her at [email protected].
