Melenhorst family in shock after barn fire
They read about fire before they got home to see it

WINCHESTER — A pall hangs over the Melenhorst farm near Winchester. Six days after a fire destroyed 100 cows, two silos and their 50-cow tie stall barn the family was in mourning. “All is gone, all is gone,” says Jos Melenhorst as he surveys the wreckage and rubble from the laneway. “We’re still in shock.” Ten calves housed in a nearby barn survived the fire that occurred March 21, while the Melenhosts were in Saskatchewan. They read about the tragedy in a newspaper article before they got home. When the fall of 2006 turned into winter, Jos and his wife Francine were pleased with how well the farm had been doing. The cows were milking well and he had some quality heifers moving into the milking line, the breeding strategy was working. Now 47, he was thinking freedom 55. The last corn harvest had been a record for the farm, and at five tonnes an acre was one of the best yields in Ontario. To make matters even better, corn prices rose after three years of stagnation and he sold his crop for $143 per tonne. But the bottom fell out of his idyllic existence while he was out in Saskatchewan at a broomball tournament with his wife and three of his children. His oldest son, Kevin, 23, was looking after the farm. “They sent the story (about the fire) from the front page of the Ottawa Sun,” he said. “When I read it, I thought everything is gone.”  But everything is not gone. The dream house he built five years ago is intact and he has 300 acres of the finest crop land you’ll find in Ontario. “I have a friend in Carleton Place whose brother is dying of cancer. I know I am better off.”  He looks across the fields and down the road and notes that the Merkley farm is rebuilding after a devastating fire. “I’d build tomorrow if I thought one of the boys wanted to farm,” he says. The youngest boys might ber interested but they are in Grade 9 and Grade 11. In another day or two, the damaged silos would be torn down and the rubble cleaned away. One of the silos contained 100 tonnes of high moisture corn and he was concerned that he might not be able to sell the corn. Tonnes of baled hay stored in a nearby shed had escaped the fire. The barn was insured. Melenhorst has no idea what caused the fire but farms near him have been torched by an arsonist in the last year.