CLARION — While the dairy cattle are gone, the barn now under the care of Austin Keller retains much of the original equipment that it had when it was in use as a dairy barn. The barn had stalls for milking 18 head of dairy cattle.

The barn was built in 1937 by the farm’s owner, Lynn Thompson, according to Harlan Poolman, who leased the farm from Thompson. Poolman moved to the farm in 1963 and lived there until he quit farming in 1999. Besides raising livestock and crops on the farm, Thompson also placed another requirement on Poolman.

“You got to keep this place up good,” said Harlan Poolman about one of the conditions on the lease. Over the years, Lynn Thompson paid for the materials, with Harlan Poolman supervising the workers.

“Everybody thought I owned the place,” said Poolman.

Messenger photo by Clayton Rye
Austin Keller and his son Harrison stand in the barn's haymow that long ago stored hay bales.

Poolman milked 38 cows, quitting the dairy business in the 1970s. He also raised hogs, feeding the raw milk to the hogs.

When Lynn Thompson made more land available for Poolman to farm, he quit raising hogs in 1996. But he had another reason for quitting the hog business.

“I quit hogs so I could go to Texas,” said Poolman.

The farm passed from Lynn Thompson to his son Rex. Austin Keller’s father, Dale Keller, now leases the farm from Thompson.

Austin Keller grew up on this farm, moving there at age 5.

Austin Keller and his wife Taylor were married in 2015 and moved into the farm home in 2021, after living nearby on another farmstead across the road. They are parents of three sons: Cooper, 8; Harrison, 5, and Harvey, 6 weeks.

While growing up on the farm, Austin Keller remembers his father Dale had a cow-calf operation, raising beef cattle and keeping small square bales in the haymow.

Austin Keller uses the barn for his 6 to 8 beef cows and their calves. Keller bought his first cattle as a high school sophomore. Upon graduation from high school, he used the money he received as graduation gifts to buy more cows.

His boys take an active interest in the farm and livestock.

“They enjoy it,” said Keller. “They feed the calves after school.”

Son Cooper and his cousin Barett participated in the bucket calf competition at the Wright County Fair. Cooper has also shown hogs at the fair.

Austin Keller believes there will be more livestock activity as the boys grow older. Son Harrison has a fondness for riding in the tractor when it is time to spread manure. For Christmas one year, he had a request for one gift — a toy manure spreader. He got one.

Since moving on to the farm, Keller has made improvements to the barn with a new roof and fence.

Austin Keller has another special memory of the barn from just before Thanksgiving in 2014.

“The barn is where I asked Taylor to marry me,” he said.

Keller did some work to prepare for this important occasion: “I set some hay bales up.”