Extensive Farm Improvements Undertaken to Counter Financial Problems
Scope and Content Note: For first five years “the expenditures were too great for the income.” In 1957, Tomter told Sletteland he would quit farming unless improvements were made. Improvement and expansion began: barn remodeled to include thirteen more stanchions, barn cleaner installed, cow yard cemented, two new silos with augers built, new milk-house with bulk tank constructed, more calf-pens added, as well as a free-stall shed for thirty more cows. Sletteland also purchased neighboring 117 acre farm and entire dairy operation grew from twenty-five to seventy-two milk cows, not including young stock. Improved feeding increased milk production and for several years Tomter and his two sons marketed over a million pounds of milk.