Farm recovery from April's blizzard will take months

As piles of snow diminish, gaping holes in the roofs of many barns across the state remain, evidence of the historic snowstorm that dumped record amounts of snow on Wisconsin April 13-16.  As Secretary of Agriculture Sheila Harsdorf toured devastated farms on April 24, the damage she saw goes beyond crumpled barns and gaping holes in roofs. Losses include lower milk production from stressed cows, aborted pregnancies and injuries that show up months down the road.“It’s hard to believe the destruction,” said Sheila Harsdorf, Wisconsin’s secretary of agriculture. “It’s something we’ve probably never seen in our lifetime. If one operation has a disaster, other farms can pitch in and help take care of animals, and allow it to be rebuilt, but in this case, there’s so many structures that are damaged.” Jay Vomastic, owner of JJ&S Sunrise Dairy Farm, in Shawano, lost five cows when snow collapsed a barn on his farm, trapping cows in a "V" under trusses, Vomastic told WFRV-TV. "It's sad to see you know, years of work ... my grandfather, father and everybody built things up to be where it was at — one freak snowstorm and everything is wiped away," Vomastic said in an interview.  Vomastic, who is looking at $300,000 worth of damage, according to media reports, said after clean up, they would get contractors in to look at rebuilding. "Is it going to be easy? Probably not, but the way the farming economy was struggling already, this is another backbreaker for the community that they didn't need," Vomastic said in an interview.