The Summit County Farm Bureau Distinguished Service Award is the highest honor we can bestow on an individual. Choosing a worthy recipient from the many qualified can be difficult for the three previous winners, who are assigned the task. The award is given to a bona fide farmer who has made an outstanding contribution to their local community and the industry of agriculture.
This year’s award winner has been farming his entire life. Born in 1958, this farmer grew up taking care of his family farm with his mother, father and two older sisters. He fed and milked cattle, fed pigs and chickens along with tending a large garden and a small row crop operation. He also showed animals at the local township fair.
Seeing a potential business opportunity, the decision was made to focus the farm on Dairy. This led our recipient to Ohio State ATI where he received a degree in Dairy Science. He would also go on to meet his wife who was also attending school there.
After graduation the real work began. Equipped with a new understanding of the dairy industry, along-side his father he helmed a remodel of his barn and milking methods. A 4×4 herringbone saw tooth surge parlor was built in 1979 along with a new free stall barn that is still being used to this day.
At the same time, he was starting a family. Married in 1980 to his wife Ann, they went on to buy a home right across the street from the farm in 1983. Four children then followed, Paul, David, Matthew and Sarah.
Later on in 1995, another major renovation was made to the dairy barn. A Large “Lean To” was added to the bank barn providing a more modern and streamlined bed system for the cows. It also made more space and allowed the herd to grow to what it is today.
125 cows later, his farm is the very last one of its kind in the county. Along with his son Matt, they maintain a herd of 200 cattle and farm over 500 acres.
In 2002, a well-deserved machine shop was built to help maintain the fleet of John Deere tractors that are used on the farm.
Our award winner has been a Summit County Farm Bureau member for over 40 years, is a gifted wood worker, a dedicated and active member of Greensburg United Methodist Church and he has been blessed with seven grandchildren.
As Paul Harvey said in his 1978 speech to the FFA, “God said, I need somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week’s work with a five-mile drive to church. Somebody who’d bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life ‘doing what dad does. So God made a farmer.”
This year’s Summit County Farm Bureau Distinguished Service Award goes to Dennis Hartong of Hartong Farm.
Congratulations!