Ramp at the barn

Bill Brox · Dec 28, 2017

Hi there,

Since I am from Norway, and not too familiar with the US and now living in California I don't know a lot about farming and barns in other parts of the US.

Here is the deal, my wife subscribe to a magazine called Yankee Magazine and is from New England, and I am looking at barns and small farms they have pics from, and today it dawnd to me something I have never seen in the US.
In Norway maybe 95% of the barns in the old days had a ramp outside the barn that went up and into the barn. In really od days I guess they used it for the horses and wagons, but I am not familiar with those days. When I was a kid this ramp was used to drive up with tractors and the trailer with dry hay.
The idea was that they made a floor sort of a second floor in the barn, from one side of the barn to the other. And so wide that a tractor could easily fit there, plus a little space to walk around the tractor and trailer. This way it was easy to unload the trailer and just tip the load outside the floor and down in the bottom of the barn. In other words, no reason to have some kind of lift to get the hay up.

Barns in Norway are often built in a slope, so they made a ramp outside the barn where this floor inside was, and then to the ground that was actually a little uphill. This way the ramp did not become so long or so steep. Some barns had this ramp in the end of the barn that was facing uphill, it all depended how people wanted it, and how if fit to build the barn.

Is this something that has been used for tractors here in the US to get the hay easily into the barn ?

Bill
Untitled URL Link

Billy NY · Dec 28, 2017

Bank Barn ? There was a fair amount of them around here, 2nd floor was the hay mow and below was the stalls for livestock, mostly dairy.
Bank Barns

Spook · Dec 28, 2017

Never seen anything like that, many barns here are built with a eartheran ramp that does the same function. Plus it puts the 1st floor partially buried, helped insulate the lower level.

Bill Brox · Dec 28, 2017

f someone wants to look at more pictures about this, here is another link.

https://www.google.com/search?q=l%C3%A5vebru&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjkycWygK7YAhUKxFQKHULHDPsQ_AUICigB&biw=1906&bih=940

Bruce from Can. · Dec 28, 2017

I have two bank barns, were you can drive directly in onto the barn floor. The barn in the picture has my herd of dairy cows in the stable below. The cows can walk out on the level on the other side of the barn. This barn is built into the side of a hill.
The barn in your picture is/ was also built here in Canada, the space in between the dirt hill and the barn, usually had framed in sides. And the actual bridge section on top the wagon drove over, had section that would lift off. This way you could drop root crops like turnip, or potatoes from above, and store them in this root cellar to be fed to cattle later in the winter.

Loren in Iowa · Dec 28, 2017

Welcome. My ancestors all came from Norway, and I still have relatives there. My Grandpa's barn in North Iowa, was built into the side of a hill, and had an earthen ramp leading to the upper floor. I suspect that the barn was built before the days of tractors, but the upper floor was used to store hay and straw, to feed and bed the cattle, downstairs.

Ted in NE-OH · Dec 28, 2017

Many barns were at ground level so you could drive a team of horses connected to a hay wagon through the barn. It is kind of hard to get horses to back a heavy wagon up a ramp. Most old barns were built before 1940 when horses were generally used for farming.

centash · Dec 28, 2017

Where we live in this part of Ontario, Canada, nearly every barn was built on flat level ground and the ground floor had cement walls and housed most types of livestock. The second level, about 8 feet higher was accessed by an earthen ramp called a gangway, which led to the inside where hay straw and grain was stored. The gangway had a bridge like structure next to the barn, under which was traditionally the milk room for milk handling, and was also used as a root cellar if enclosed with cement walls. Interesting to note the regional differences in barn structures.
Ben

jeffcat · Dec 28, 2017

You see a lot of these out in Lancaster county in Pennsylvania. Very old style. There are a lot of old Amish and Mennonite out there. I do know there are a few here and there in NJ and NY but it will be on a very old farm. From early to late 1800s. Come to think of it, there might be a few in the Gettysburg national park. If i am not mistaken they were made so the team could be lead in and you could actually turn it around on the floor. Those barns would sometimes have a turntable to turn a carriage or sleigh and such after it was pulled in. Then you would push them back against the rear wall. You would hand pitch the fodder into two huge piles on both sides. They would have had cribbing to hold everything in place. Tons of work. Yankee Magazine has been around for ages. Used to read it back in the 60s and 70s. These photos are from the battle field.

fixerupper · Dec 28, 2017

I hill country with no flat land where a barn has to be built on a side hill I can see where a ramp going up to the door on the uphill side would drain water away from the door.

David G · Dec 28, 2017

My shop is banked, loft is at ground level on one side, 16' at other.

farmerjohn · Dec 28, 2017

Never heard of a turntable in an old barn.

Bruce from Can. · Dec 28, 2017

Bill,my grandfather was from Brekke on Flam , Norway. And I still have a cousin there that has a dairy goat farm. I know little about Norway, though I have been in touch with my cousin Styrle there, and would like to travel to Norway some day.

showcrop · Dec 28, 2017

Hi Bill, I live in Yankee Magazine country. My mother always subscribed to it. Her father had a barn that had a ramp that put the team of horses and the hay rack on the third floor level. The bottom level was where the manure went. You picked up hinged planks to push it down. The first floor is where the cows and the grainery were, as well as hay. The next level is where the wooden ramp came to. The ramp was, you might say a bridge that spanned over from a stone ramp, built on a ledge outcropping, to the upper barn level. There used to be a lot of barns like this here in NH.

37chief · Dec 28, 2017

I can see where the ramp would do some good. Never thought much about it, but dad's barn was higher on the front side, and lower on the back. My mothers Dad came from Norway. What part of California do you live? Stan

flying belgian · Dec 28, 2017

In the days when that first barn was used there could not have been that much traffic on that road. Come over the hill and there sits the tractor and wagon cross ways in the road trying to line it up to back in the door.

coonie minnie · Dec 28, 2017

Bank barns, and those with a built up hill, are very common here in WI. Actually, it is uncommon to find a barn here without a ramp into the top level. There is one near me built into enough of a hill that you could access THREE levels- the downstairs, where the cattle were kept, the hay mow floor, and the 3rd level went atop the granaries and about 10 feet above the hay mow floor. One could push a wagon of grain on the top level, gravity feed it to the granary bin, and again gravity feed to the livestock below.

jeffcat · Dec 29, 2017

Well there could have been some really fast horses. Many of the fields around the park are mowed and I am not sure if it is baled or just mowed. I only get out there around the 4th so just don't know. The park service can be understanding or jerks. Some of the houses are rented and some of the buildings are used for storage. Gettysburg is a very tightly kept place so that it is as close as possible to 1863. They also have examples of several types of fencing too. I can put up a couple.

larry@stinescorner · Dec 29, 2017

heres our bank barn,the front of it,,and the back of it,,is that what you were thinking of?

Mike M · Dec 29, 2017

In later years those barn banks were handy to park JD 2 cyl. diesels on the bank so you could roll start them.

Bill Brox · Dec 29, 2017

(quoted from post at 19:54:47 12/28/17) Bill,my grandfather was from Brekke on Flam , Norway. And I still have a cousin there that has a dairy goat farm. I know little about Norway, though I have been in touch with my cousin Styrle there, and would like to travel to Norway some day.

Hello Bruce, this is perhaps not so tractor related, but I am sure your cousin has a tractor at the farm. Anyway, I am sending you a link here to the famous Flåmsbanen, The Flåms track, a side track from the railroad between Oslo and Bergen. It starts at 866 meters over sea level (2840 feet above sea level) and ends in Brekke, Flåm. Where your grand father came from. The link is to a youtube movie clip in real time. A camera with microphone placed in the front of the Flåm train, from Myrdal station down to Brekke. It is extremely steep, and the train has to use the brakes a lot. A lot of tunnels, but outside the tunnels you can get a picture of what kind of landscape your grandfather grew up with. Brekke lays in one of the sidefjords to Norways and one of the worlds largest and deepest fjords (deep inlets). A magnificent landscape. The movie is almost an hour long, that is what the train ride takes in real life. I hope you can enjoy it.

Bill Brox · Dec 29, 2017

(quoted from post at 19:54:47 12/28/17) Bill,my grandfather was from Brekke on Flam , Norway. And I still have a cousin there that has a dairy goat farm. I know little about Norway, though I have been in touch with my cousin Styrle there, and would like to travel to Norway some day.

Hello Bruce, this is perhaps not so tractor related, but I am sure your cousin has a tractor at the farm. Anyway, I am sending you a link here to the famous Flåmsbanen, The Flåms track, a side track from the railroad between Oslo and Bergen. It starts at 866 meters over sea level (2840 feet above sea level) and ends in Brekke, Flåm. Where your grand father came from. The link is to a youtube movie clip in real time. A camera with microphone placed in the front of the Flåm train, from Myrdal station down to Brekke. It is extremely steep, and the train has to use the brakes a lot. A lot of tunnels, but outside the tunnels you can get a picture of what kind of landscape your grandfather grew up with. Brekke lays in one of the sidefjords to Norways and one of the worlds largest and deepest fjords (deep inlets). A magnificent landscape. The movie is almost an hour long, that is what the train ride takes in real life. I hope you can enjoy it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFqYZJWVTto

Bill Brox · Dec 29, 2017

Hello Stan, I live in Santa Rosa, northern California. 10 houses from the Coffee Park neighborhood that burned down during the wildfire in early october.

Bill Brox · Dec 29, 2017

I see your barn, do you have the animals in the lower part ?

Bill

Bill Brox · Dec 29, 2017

The way you describe it is just how old barns in Norway are. Concrete or stacked rocks at the bottom, for manure. A door so you could get in with a horse carriage or a tractor trailer to load it. Some even high enough so you could drive in with the tractor, mostly without a cab. Above were the livestock, cattle, sheep, goeats, pigs, and the mandatory cat that had her little bowl for fresh and warm milk from the cows to make live a little extra pleasant. Usually this was maybe half of the barn, then the upper level, that was above where the livestock was, and that was for hay. In the other end it was usually hay for two levels, with the ramp ending up in the second level so they tipped the hay down there, and when it got up to the level where the tractor was, they tossed it to the sides both over the level for the livestock and over the hay on the other side. At some point people stopped using dried hay, and build silos inside the barn, so it was easy to get the grass in to the silo from the high level the tractor was at.

Bill Brox · Dec 29, 2017

Some ramps in Norway are also only earth or rocks, like yours. And in some cases they had this opening between the earth ramp and the barn so they needed a bridge over. And under the bridge it was often a door in, and this was were the horses were kept. To have the door under the bridge was also very convenient since Norway tend to have some snow, you know, all that white stuff

that way they did not have to shovel snow in front of the door.

C.Amick · Dec 29, 2017

I have one that is made to back the truck or trailer up to the door on the second floor, but not in the barn. The other barn, the second floor is ground level on the front and you can drive into it. I think these kinds of barns are typical in areas where the terrain is more sloping.

Ramp at the barn

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