Calves at King Dairy Farm wake up to start the day.
LIMA — The Lima region has no shortage of farmland, but it’s no stranger to raising animals too.
Some of the farms in the area known for providing animal products are King Dairy and Brennco Sow Farm.
“Our goal is basically to send 120,000 market hogs to market every year,” said Keaton Brenneman, who runs Brennco with his family. “We have a grain operation, which subsidizes our feed mill with cheaper corn, and we raise our own corn as well. The hog business is another operation, so each of those has different value.”
King Dairy Farm focuses on cows.
“We have around 180 cows and 160 for milking with youngstock probably another 130,” said Keith King, owner of King Dairy Farm. “And we produce 2,200 gallons of milk per day.”
According to the Ohio Livestock Coalition, there are about 2,200 dairy farms in Ohio, raising approximately 296,000 cows, and the state raises more than 2.95 million hogs per year.
For both farms located north of Lima, being in the area for decades. Running things through multiple generations of family has been an important endeavor.
“It’s something that not very many people get to do anymore, being on a family farm,” said Brenneman’s brother, Kyle. “The industry has gone to more of the factory farms and bigger corporate-owned type of situation, but there’s not much else like being on a family farm. You work together to support family and several other families now and that’s a big part of it.”
King added, “It’s a way of life. It all starts in the land. That’s where we grow the crops to feed the cows that in turn feed back the land, and at the same time we’re producing a product in milk to feed the world. It’s all a big bio-cycle, and it’s about being a good steward of the land. That’s the driving motivation in life.”
For King, the significance of being one of the few dairy farms in the area is not lost, but being a farmer is just the job he has had since he took over in 1989 his father’s farm, which has been in existence since 1955.
“I grew up doing it,” he said. “For about three years, I worked in construction trade and doing a lot of traveling and working around all kinds of environments, and this is just kind of a refreshing way of life.”
Brennco has been in the area since Keaton’s and Kyle’s father and uncle started the farm in the 1970s, watching as neighboring farms consolidated into bigger farms.
“We’re sitting pretty good in corn-growing country,” Kyle Brenneman said. “We grow the corn, feed the corn and then we raise the pig and feed the pig.”
Keaton Brenneman added, “It makes sense to set up a hog business here. If the corn is growing here, you might as well set up the hogs here, too. So it works out nicely.”
For a seasonal business like hog farming, Brennco has to rely on strong yields during the summertime when the animals are raised and grown to full size.
“We produce about 120,000 weaner pigs every year, at 12 pounds size, and then last year we had a record when we produced about 140,000 pigs,” Keaton Brenneman said. “The market fluctuates throughout the year, and the summer hogs are the ones that carry the business.
“Pork production goes through big cycles through the years. I would say we’re in an upswing because the market is really good, even though we’re probably losing money on our winter hogs right now. You just have to make sure you’re able to sleep at night and you can make it through those market downturns.”
For a dairy farm, King said people might have the wrong perception of how it works and how the cattle are treated.
“The products we produce are a value-added product to what the farm could sell as green,” he said. “It’s milk, ice cream, butter and all the products. But like I say, it all starts in the land with the bio-cycle. We take care of the land to support the cows, and we treat the cows as best as they can be treated so they support the land with the manure that fertilizes the ground. We do the best we can to provide a relaxing, comfortable atmosphere and experience for the gal so she can do her job.”
And while there may be challenges and competition from larger dairy farms, King said that is not what is important to his farm.
“We’re just trying to find this sustainable niche demand to be a good steward of the land and provide a comfortable living,” he said. “We’re not here to really get rich. We’re just here to provide a good environment and a good place to work.”
Raising hogs, however, is a little more complicated for Brennco.
For one thing, weaner hogs are sent to contract growers within a 30-mile radius of the farm, local farmers who use the manure and rent out their barns to house the pigs.
And that, plus the corn that the farm buys from other local farmers, feeds into a steady cashflow for neighbors who then have work for the next generation to be able to decide if farmwork is for them.
“I’d say it’s a fairly good opportunity,” Keaton Brenneman said. “I think the average age of the farmer is 55 and going toward 60. A lot of the millennial generation just chooses not to farm anymore, whether it’s because of the stress of working 80 hours a week in the fall consistently for two months or being busy in the spring and summer. But there’s always something to do and something you can be improving.”
Brenneman said that although the business is not the easiest, it is worth getting involved in it if you have a passion for it.
CELEBRATING OUR SPIRIT
Plenty of foods, items and ideas are created right here in the Lima region. Celebrating Our Spirit looks at those organizations that make the area such a vibrant place to live, work and play.
Read more stories at LimaOhio.com/tag/spirit.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
