HISTORY OF FREEDOM FARMS
In 1900, Hermann
Bischoff purchased his first fifty acres of farm
land for a total of $2700.00. He cultivated and
improved this land for five years, after which he
sold this land and purchased 120 acres in Paulding
County. He then sold this land and moved back to
Henry County where he bought sixty acres of land
that is part of the family farm in its current
state. Over the next few years his farm grew to a
total of 120 acres and was called Elm Swamp Farms.
When he was ready to retire from farming in 1942,
his son Albert took over and farmed until his son
Arnold bought the farm in 1957.
Arnold married Eleanore
Badenhop in 1952. Her family was also a multi
generation farm family. Johan Badenhop started their
family farm in 1872 which is the current homestead
of Larry and office of Freedom Farms. The farm was
past down to his son Henry Badenhop, and then to his
son Carl Badenhop. Arnold started to farm their land
in 1958. In 1973 Arnold purchased the Badenhop Farm
after Carl passed away. In 1974, Arnold’s son Larry
started to farm with him, until 1991 when Arnold
retired.
In 1996, Eric started
farming with Larry. They raised cattle for the next
few years along with raising their crops. They now
farm a total of 300 acres. They grew corn, beans,
wheat, and hay. The family farm was continuing to
grow through innovative farming practices such as no
till.
In 2002, the farm was
devastated when a barn fire claimed 10,000 bales of
straw and much of their equipment. Eric and Larry
refused to let this stop them. This gave Larry and
Eric an opportunity to start an official
partnership. They rebuilt their barn, and replaced
their equipment.
Over the past seven
years, they have continued to use new and innovative
technologies such as GPS mapping, yield monitoring,
grid sampling, variable rate fertilizer application,
and RTK auto-steer guidance systems. They have also
started to experiment with cover crops such as Oil
Seed Radish and Austrian Winter Peas. Freedom Farms
has branched out in the custom farming field with
their strip tilling, fertilizer spreading, tillage,
and combining. The most recent addition to their
farming operation has been becoming an Authorized DM
AgCam reseller.
