Platteville farm recovering after storm damage

A southwest Wisconsin farm is cleaning up a great deal of damage after Monday morning’s storms.

The Weigel Dairy Farm outside Platteville had every building on its farm damaged Monday morning by swift-moving storms that affected much of Grant County. Four of those buildings were destroyed and animals were injured as barns and calf hutches were blown apart.

Farm owner Tom Weigel was a half a mile from home in a tin outbuilding when the storm hit the home farm. He came home immediately to find the damage.

“When we first pulled in there was calves running around and it was like, oh this was really bad,” Weigel said. “And the more you looked at it, this is really, really bad.”

Bad turned quickly better as friends, family and neighbors swarmed the farm within just a few hours. They brought feed, new calf hutches, lumber and more, all to try to get the farm operational again.

“Just an outpouring of people, it’s unbelievable,” said Tim White, a family friend of the Weigel’s who came from his job in Cuba City to help. “There must be at least a hundred people around here. Which is kind of a testament to this farm family, the friends they have, and also just to the ag community as a whole around here.”

The Weigel farm was founded in 1889 by Tom’s grandfather, and the family was honored recently as the Dairy Farm Family of the Year in Grant County.

Weigel was thankful to the crowd, who despite the damage and a hole in the roof of the milking parlor made sure the family was able to milk Monday.

“It was because of the people of Grant County and the people we deal with every day, they came to our aid,” Weigel said.