17 June 2023
HEALY, Kan. (KSNW) — Vance and Louise Ehmke felt so comfortable among the numerous grain bins on their Lane County homestead the couple decided a while back to convert one of the galvanized steel structures into a home and office for Ehmke Seed.
The 42-foot diameter bin was customized into a home in 2000. It also serves as a scale house. A huge scale sits in front of the house for buyers of Ehmke seed to weigh their loads.
Ehmke Seed is registered as “34 Star Farms”. One of the most unique furnishings inside the scale home is a framed period 34-star American flag. Kansas was also the 34th state to enter the Union.
KSN visited with the Ehmke’s on a recent visit to their home during the KSN Summer Road Tour.
“Well, the Ehmke family homesteaded here in 1885. Lane County was formed in 1886. We’ve been here ever since then,” said Vance Ehmke. “And over the past 20 or 30 years, we grew from a traditional farm into a seed business.”
“We were in the grain business, and that’s what we always say because of the grain, and the grain business made a statement. It evolved, and it just worked out really well,” said Louise Ehmke.
The scale home features a kitchen, office, bathroom, and utility room on the ground floor. Upstairs are two bedrooms and another bathroom. It also features a double-doored foyer to help keep the dust out.
“This is a real-life grain bin. And like we’ve been saying there, it says we are in the grain business. We had this built, it was over 20 years ago, and we’ve had thousands come here either as seed customers or to see the scale house and office. It’s kind of like you’ve got to wear good clothes all the time because you never know who will show up,” laughed Vance Ehmke.
“It was mainly out of desperation. Now there’s a fine line between creativity and desperation, like we needed a scale house. So we thought, well, let’s just build a grain bin,” he added.
The grain bin is 31 feet high at the center with 18-foot tall sidewalls. Vance Ehmke says this particular bin without a pit would hold 25 semi-loads of corn or wheat.
“We have multiple different kinds of walls, but the main wall we have in there is the signature wall. And, you come visit us, you get to sign the wall. So, people come back and find their signature. They hunt around until they find it and date it again,” said Louise.
“Yeah, we’ve had two Kansas governors (Governor Sebelius and Governor Kelly) come out here to visit and to sign the wall,” added Vance.