Farmers raise pigs for profit as a food source. In Iowa, in March 2025, there were 24.3 million pigs on thousands of Iowa farms, and nationally there were 74,512 million pigs. We don’t emphasize pigs as a symbol of the New Year, although they have been a well-known symbol of good luck and happiness for many years in other countries.
The New Year postcard below is from Hungary. Our Hungarian friend indicates that pigs represent good fortune because they root out the fortune from the ground. This young man is hoping for great good fortune, with all the pigs that are following him. On the other hand, she says that Hungarians don’t eat chicken on New Year’s because chickens scratch away the fortunes and don’t eat fish either because fish swim away with the fortunes.
Also attached are two German postcards sent in the early 20th century to commemorate the holiday. Snow pigs. What a novel idea!
Happy New Year however you might have celebrated the holiday. May 2026 be a good year for all of you.
This 1893 Mills County barn, one mile west of Treynor on Hwy. 92 and owned by Craig and Donna Sudmann, is 133 years old. It has been recently re-painted, and is still in use for storage of small bales of hay and grain for their pleasure horses. A rather complicated system in this barn in past years used buckets to fill and empty bins filled with grain that was stored inside. See page 44 of Iowa Barns yesterday and today for more information on this system.
Craig Sudmann’s great-great-grandfather named the farm “Trio Dell” because there are three valleys (dells) in the area. The date 1893 is painted on the west side of the cupola and Trio Dell Farm on the east side.
Another barn, built in 1925, several hundred feet to the southeast of the 1893 barn, has been recently restored (See photo below). It provides shelter for the horses in inclement weather and storage for their food in the form of 1,500 pound round bales. A large center door was made to allow for the storage of the large bales.
Union County farmer William Harris and his four sons built this small barn on their farm in 1896. The wood came from cottonwood trees on the farm and were cut at a nearby sawmill on the Grand River. After used for dairying and other livestock the barn was given by the Harris family in 1992 to the Union County Historical Village and Museum in Creston. In 2016-17 shake shingles were installed and it was repaired and repainted in 2021. Inside are farm tools and equipment used in early days of farming. This view is of the east side of the barn; the west side is the main entrance. (2025 photo)
Today, August 17, is the final day of the 2025 Iowa State Fair, which was a big part of the life of Marcia Shaver and her father, Noran, for many years. August 22 is also Marcia’s birthday, when she will be 88 years old. In honor of these two events I am repeating Blog #46, sent April 3, 2022, featuring Marcia and her milking shorthorn story, since many of you were not receiving my blog at that time. It’s a great story of her life. She is now living in a care facility in Iowa Falls.
What were YOU doing at age five? Marcia Shaver was showing her first calf at the Iowa State Fair at age five. That was almost 80 years ago. She is pictured here at age four on the cover of Milking Shorthorn Journal, March 1941. Thus began her legacy of showing and judging cattle at the Iowa State Fair, the National Dairy Cattle Congress, the Chicago International, the National Show in Madison, Wisconsin, the World Dairy Expo, 13 state fairs, and many other shows.
It was at the World Expo in 2005 where Marcia showed the grand champion female, Mysha Lady Di, a pivotal point of her career (See photo below). The culmination of her career was being a judge at the Dairy Expo in Australia in 2000.
At the Mysha Farm near St. Anthony she still keeps in contact with many friends all over the world that she has made through the years, and also the cattle she owns based on farms in a few other states.
The Milking Shorthorn cattle story began when her father, Noran Shaver, worked at the Clampitt farm south of New Providence milking 40 cows by hand in the era before milking machines. Below is a photo of the Clampitt barn built in 1916, which was destroyed by a tornado in 1989. See page 247 of Iowa Barns Yesterday and Today for another photo of the barn and more of the Clampitt story.
What was a project that many farmers did years ago in the summer? Her father owned a boxcar and he and his sons would take 12 head from Lawn Hill (near New Providence) in specially constructed stalls in the boxcar, first going north into Minnesota and then south to Texas. This was a project to make money for the farm and sell a few bulls, stopping at fairs and other shows along the way. Imagine the work and logistics this project would involve.
Her father continued his love of raising and showing cattle for decades after buying a farm west of St. Anthony that he named Mysha Farm, now owned by Marcia. He attended his last Iowa State Fair shortly before his death at age 93.
Being a dairy farmer has been a lifelong adventure for the Shaver family, where dedication and breeding prize cattle is legendary. Marcia Shaver-Floyd has broken barriers for women and forged the path for young girls to pursue their dreams of raising and showing prize cattle.
After 133 years of use, the Deardorff barn still exists as a home for Angus cattle. Dave Deardorff, a great-grandson, and his wife Sheila, the owners, treasure this farm and its history.
In 1889 the farm was purchased by Mahlon and Sarah Deardorff, and in 1892, 70 men helped Dave’s great grand-father, Mahlon, build this barn, originally intended for horses but also providing space for dairy cows, grain bins and hay. In the Yale newspaper at the time it was completed indicated that a fitting celebration was held: “a sumptuous dinner was followed by cigars and lemonade.”
On July 28,1990, one hundred years of farm ownership was celebrated with a summer picnic held at the farm for over 350 friends and relatives, featuring sweet corn from their garden. Everyone was given a red hat and a cup that said “Century Farm.”
The above photo was taken 45 years ago when the barn was 88 years old. The photo below, taken in 2015, when it was 133 years old, shows changes in the logo and the addition of steel siding.
The barn is featured in an article in the June 2025 Panora Times, along with several other barns in Guthrie County. A story can also be found in Iowa Barns yesterday and today on page 23.
Here’s a scene you won’t see today, but back in the 1940s it was a common sight. This is an advertisement for an Allis-Chalmers Model “C” tractor, marketed from 1940 to 1949 and promoted because the spacing in an earlier tractor, a Model “B”, was too narrow to “cultivate” two rows at once. Today corn is not cultivated. Rows are close together, individual plants are close together, herbicides are used, and there are numerous hybrids available.
Many factors influence corn growth: planting time, spring temperatures, amount of rain received, area of the state, and the particular hybrid used. Years ago, it was said that corn should be “knee-high” by the 4th of July. Today, corn could be six feet high or even higher by the 4th of July.
On two Iowa Barn Foundation tours my husband took photos of me standing in front of a field of corn. On June 18, 2018 the corn was over six feet tall, which was impressive. On June 25, 2022 in the same area, it was about a foot tall. Check your local corn fields and make comparisons from year to year.
When pioneers arrived in Iowa in the 1830s they had few roads to guide them. Robert Lucas, the First Iowa Territorial Governor, wanted to connect Iowans with the outside world and with each other.
Lyman Dillon, a Cascade farmer, used a breaking plow with a yoke of five oxen to plow a furrow between Dubuque and Iowa City, the Territorial Capitol, and soon the 100-mile furrow became a major road for westbound pioneers passing through the towns of Martelle, Cascade, Anamosa, and Monticello. The date ”1989” commemorates 150 years after the furrow was plowed.
Today this road is US Highway 151 from Dubuque to Anamosa, and Highway 1 from Anamosa to Iowa City.When pioneers arrived in Iowa in the 1830s they had few roads to guide them. Robert Lucas, the First Iowa Territorial Governor, wanted to connect Iowans with the outside world and with each other.
Lyman Dillon, a Cascade farmer, used a breaking plow with a yoke of five oxen to plow a furrow between Dubuque and Iowa City, the Territorial Capitol, and soon the 100-mile furrow became a major road for westbound pioneers passing through the towns of Martelle, Cascade, Anamosa, and Monticello. The date ”1989” commemorates 150 years after the furrow was plowed.
Today this road is US Highway 151 from Dubuque to Anamosa, and Highway 1 from Anamosa to Iowa City.
A blog about barns will arrive next weekend, but in the meantime, what might rabbits have been doing on farms this Easter holiday?
Anthropomorphism has ancient roots in art and here is one example expressed in the form of a postcard mailed March 1902. I don’t know the translation of this message but the fanciful kitchen scene of mamma rabbit rolling out dough for a dish for an Easter celebration, and her young doe wondering what to do next, is an amusing caricature.
