Roger Myers built the 60-by-40-foot barn in 2009.

“I had cattle then — a cow/calf operation at the time, so (I) built the barn for that and for hay storage,” he said.

But why not build a pole shed?

“I like barns. I knew I would be the last one to build one, you know what I mean,” he said.

Myers said the style of build also allowed for hay storage in the upper level and for the cattle to be down below.

Previous to building his new barn, Myers had an older barn that was built in 1875. He made the decision rather than trying to fix up the older building, he would just start over.

“The roof got bad, the side walls got bad and I called about fixing it up, and I was going to fix it, but by the time I had to put an east wall in and the floor — it would cost too much to do it,” he said. “I still had the old roof and I just decided to tear it down. We tore it down and in one week had the cement in and a week later we started building it.”

Myers recruited the help of an Amish man and his crew from eastern Iowa — relying on his skills to build just what he wanted.

“They didn’t do anything that I didn’t want. I told them what I wanted and how I wanted it,” he said. “I wanted to drive through it and have hay storage on top. I used plywood — didn’t use any of that cheap particle board in there.”

He also installed two drop doors to drop the hay down.

“You open them up and drop the hay straight down,” he said. “In the old barn I had to carry them to the side and drop them down. This new barn is a lot more efficient than the older barn. The building just resembles an old barn.”

At this time, Myers is only using his barn for hay storage, but has left the farm set up to bring in another cow/calf operation if he would choose to do so.