-Courier photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby
Matt and Jaci Carlson stand outside the family barn with their son, Colin.
It’s rare that an old barn is more relevant today than it was in years past, but that’s the case with the Carlson family farm between Lake City and Yetter.
“This isn’t a fancy barn, but it plays an important role in Carlson Cattle,” said Matt Carlson, who lives on the farm with his wife, Jaci.
Carlson’s son Colin started Carlson Cattle, a show cattle business focused on Angus show cows and purebred Simmental heifers. It is based on the Carlson family’s strong farming heritage in Calhoun County’s Elm Grove Township.
“The Carlsons stayed north of here,” said Carlson, agricultural education teacher and FFA advisor at South Central Calhoun High School in Lake City. “The big Carlson farm was across from our place and included two barns.”
No one is sure of the exact age of Matt and Jaci’s barn. “The house was built in 1927, so we think the barn was built around that time or earlier.” said Carlson, who has been a high school instructor for 39 years.
Carlson’s uncle and aunt, Richard and Doris Carlson, lived on the farm until about 1970, followed by a few tenants before Carlson’s parents, Aaron and Barb, moved in in 1980.
“There were never many cattle on this farm,” said Matt, whose father removed the barn from the south side and added a large door to the west so he could store vehicles and machinery in the barn.
Cattle became part of the farm again after Colin joined the Jackson Pioneers 4-H Club and wanted to try a cattle project. After removing weeds and installing fences, the barn provided a convenient place to raise the calves that Colin and his younger sister, Kelsi, enjoyed showing at the Calhoun County Expo.
The barn also received a facelift during this time. Jaci and her friend Stacie Schultz painted the silver tin exterior red in June 2010. The Carlsons then added a colorfully painted barn door quilt the following year.
“The blue and yellow of the design reflect our Swedish heritage, the green represents agriculture, and the red block with the white star in the middle represents American pride.” said Jaci Carlson, whose family members signed the back of the barn cover before it was installed on the west side of the barn on July 28, 2011.
The barn remains a center of the farm, said Colin, 25, who sells feed for Webb’s Feed in Rockwell City, sells Golden Harvest seed and continues to grow the Carlson Cattle business. “We will give birth to about 20 animals this spring.”
The Carlsons use embryo transfer technology and calves are born in January and February. “We’ve had calves born during snowstorms when the barn is barely visible from the house,” Colin Carlson said. “Then there are still, calm nights with the snow crunching under your feet when you go out to check on the calves. There’s nothing like it.”
There’s also nothing like the three mysterious old chairs placed side by side in the north barn, where they’ve been for decades.
“It’s almost as if previous generations of the family are here, watching over everything,” Colin Carlson said. “There are so many stories this barn could tell.”
