He’s taking it all in stride.
“When he was about a month old he was still on his mom — he went through the first tornado and now he’s a little over a year old and he’s gone through his second tornado. So he’s a tornado veteran,” said Brandon Barr, 16, who is raising Waylon and a shorthorn heifer named Dolly.
RELATED: Barr Family Farm is hit by two tornadoes since April 2018
The 1045 Ludlow Road farm owned by Brandon’s grandparents, Mary Ann and James Barr, was badly damaged in the April 3, 2018, tornado and again this year during the Memorial Day tornado outbreak in the Dayton region.
Waylon and Dolly were in a barn that had its door ripped off by the May 27 tornado, which also tore the roof from his grandparent’s house, and smashed the door of a barn built to replace a garage demolished in the 2018 tornado.
RELATED: Volunteers pitch in to clear away tornado debris in Dayton region
“I was very worried about them. They are my babies. They’re very important to me,” said Brandon. “He seems to be perfectly fine. He’s just his normal self. It’s a huge weight off my shoulders now that he’s fine.”
Most of the farm’s 25 head of cattle were in a pasture when the tornado hit and none were injured.
Brandon’s dad, Jeff Barr, said the 2018 tornado was a close call for Brandon as well as all the cattle located in and around the 1850’s-era barn that was so badly damaged it had to be replaced.
RELATED: 2018 tornadoes do damage in Greene and Clark counties
He said normally Brandon would have been in the cattle barn at the time of the tornado, but his uncle had taken him and his grandparents out to dinner so no one was home when it hit.
“I got home and the barn where all the cattle were — the roof was ripped off (and) my silo was knocked down,” said Jeff. “Basically where the silo fell if it fell 20 feet to the left it would have taken out the barn and probably killed every cow.”
In June Waylon and Dolly will be heading with Brandon to the American Shorthorn Association’s Junior National competition in Tennessee. Then it will be on to the Greene County Fair.
It is not known if his luck will hold beyond the fair, as the Barr Family Farm’s shorthorn cattle are raised for beef.
Asked if there may be possible reprieve for Waylon, Mary Ann Barr smiled and said, “He’ll be sold.”
News Center 7 Reporter Sean Cudahy contributed to this report.
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