Youmans Farms

 For nearly 48 years, the Youmans Family operated a farm in the Town of New Scotland in southwest Albany County, NY. In 1907, a rundown farm was gifted to Rev. Adelbert Clarence Youmans.  The West Shore Railroad line bisected the two farms that would eventually comprise Youmans Farms. Sometime during the first four years, Rev. A.C. Youmans had built a large barn with cow and horse stables in the lowest level. His second youngest son, Lester Howard Youmans, Sr. improved the farm with better farmland practices and grew vegetables, grains and hay to sell locally.

In 1924, Lester Youmans started a commercial dairy business. He bought more cows, enlarged the milkhouse to accommodate a steam boiler, washing equipment, cream separator, and walk-in cooler. Until pasteurization was required, he sold raw milk. He established a daily milk and egg route in Albany and the suburbs. In 1928, when the Hallenbeck Farm (the 'upper farm') on the opposite side of the railroad from the original farm was purchased, it doubled the acreage and number of buildings. A cattle underpass had been constructed by the railroad since part of the original farm included pasture on the opposite side of the railroad. This caused the roadway crossing of the tracks to be quite steep.

The upper farm was eventually devoted to the expanding poultry business. The henhouse located down near the original farmhouse was cut into sections and transported to the upper farm. Other buildings, including a machine shed, were remodeled and expanded to house up to 6000 birds. Along with milk and eggs, Youmans Farms began to sell dressed poultry. Dressed poultry orders were taken all week but, butchering was only done on Thursdays. Delivery was done only on Fridays. Some eggs and poultry was sold to Dexter Davis who operated Stonewell Shopping Center at the corner of Routes 85 and 85A in New Scotland.

In the 1930's and 1940's, four or five other farms were rented for about one dollar an acre to provide hay, corn and grain for the cows, chickens, and horses.In all, about 600 acres were worked. Usually two sows were kept on the farm in a rear addition to a building just north of the farmhouse that is now a dwelling. The sows were bred with boars from the nearby LaGrange Farm. Typically, there were two litters of about 10 piglets each year. Originally the pigs were butchered on the farm but, later they were butchered at Waldermier. This is where "dry" cows (those no longer producing milk) where taken to be butchered. Waldemier provided the beef back free to Youmans Farms in exchange for the leather hides that they would sell. 

After his wife and youngest son passed away, Lester continued to operate the farm despite a severe case of diabetes. By the 1940's, milk was being processed and bottled for two other farms- the Mead and Severson farms. As part of the farm expansion, a large barn was dismantled and trucked six miles from the corner of Elsmere Ave & Feura Bush Rd in the town of Bethlehem, NY to house horses and young livestock. This barn burned down in the 1980's. Other farm buildings including the equipment shed and some of the brooder chicken coops were constructed from wood salvaged from nearby farms including the Capitol View Farm that was west of Swift Road on New Scotland Road.

Originally, Youmans Farms did not pasteurize or homogenize the milk it sold. It was sold as raw Grade B milk. Later it was pasteurized. In the mid-1940s, Lester purchased a homogenizer from a dairy in Albany and that is when they started selling Grade A milk. The business never had refrigerated delivery trucks. Most times, ice was purchased in the form of 300lb blocks from the Feura Bush ice house adjoining the NY Central Railroad. The blocks were used in railroad freight cars filled with perishable items.

The main barn was expanded to house 72 milking stations. As many as three silos were added to the south end of the barn after two earlier silos on the north end had blown down. As of 2023, much of the main barn is badly deteriorated and partially collapsed. The silos had been removed many years ago.

 This view of the main farm is circa 1935. It depicts two silos constructed at the south end of the barn and the original Milk House behind the two trucks used for deliveries. The trucks are a 1934 Ford and a 1935 Chevrolet. The Milk House included a room for pastuerizing as well as a boiler room and ice tank room.

Click the 'Play' button on the YouTube video image above for a

short narrated virtual tour of the Farm by Sam Youmans  in 2010