PETERSBURG, Mich. — Despite massive changes the agricultural industry has undergone in recent years, Michigan and Ohio continue to have many families who withstand economic pressures to have their land sold and developed into big-box shopping centers, residential subdivisions, or be placed into the hands of major corporate agriculture.
Their perseverance has continued in the modern era of climate change, with all of the herky-jerky, drought-today and flood-tomorrow weather patterns that have made their farming operations even more difficult.
One such family-owned farm that’s still weathering tough times is the Stanger Farm off McCarty Road about a mile north of Petersburg in Monroe County.
This year, it became part of the Michigan Centennial Farm Program, which recognizes Michigan working farms of 10 acres or more that have been in the same family for at least 100 years.
In Michigan alone, 6,458 centennial farms and 436 sesquicentennial farms have been certified since the program’s inception in 1948. Once certified, they become part of the Michigan Centennial Farm Association .
The Stanger Farm, which dates back to 1924, is owned by Joe Stanger, who summed up the Stanger family’s longevity in the agricultural business with a tongue-in-cheek remark:
“We’re stubborn, I guess,” he said.
He said their farm succeeds because “everybody’s doing more than one job.”
His wife of 23 years, Abby Stanger, is a Bedford High School family and consumer sciences teacher.
Mr. Stanger and his father, John Stanger, have been farming partners for more than 25 years.
The couple’s oldest daughter, Zoe Stanger, 17, who is in the process of deciding which college she’ll attend, submitted the application for the farm recognition. Between her and her two siblings, Sophie, 15, and Lane, 11, the Stangers are hopeful that at least one of them will carry on the family’s farming tradition.
“We’re just really proud we’ve been able to keep it in the family that long,” Ms. Stanger said. “We’re hopeful one of our kids will want to continue farming when we’re gone.”
They use their field to grow corn, wheat, soybeans, and hay. The couple has about 150 cattle on site. They help pay for operations with sales of freezer beef. They also sell corn and soybean seeds.
“We’re all just very happy about it,” Ms. Stanger said of the recognition. “It’s always sad when a family farm has to sell.”
The Michigan Centennial Farm Program is managed by the Historical Society of Michigan and the DTE Foundation serves as a lead sponsor.
Rodney Cole, DTE Foundation president, said that philanthropy group “is proud to support the Historical Society of Michigan’s Centennial Farm Program because this initiative not only honors the enduring legacy of Michigan’s farming families but also underscores their invaluable contributions to our state’s heritage and economy.
“By recognizing farms that have been in the same family for over a century, we celebrate the resilience, dedication, and hard work that define Michigan’s agricultural community,” Mr. Cole said.
Ohio has a similar program called the Ohio Historic Family Farms Program , and it is operated by the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
As of August, some 2,150 Ohio farms had been certified as Ohio Historic Family Farms, meaning they have been in the same family for 100 or more years. There are at least two in all of Ohio’s 88 counties.
That 2,150 figure has grown by more than 900 farms since 2016, when there were 1,249 across the state.
The program “pays tribute to the strength and tenacity of Ohio’s family farmers who have survived over the years to continue their commitment to agriculture,” the ODA states.
Twenty-two farms in northwest Ohio have been added to the list so far in 2024. They are added one by one as they are approved, said Erin Dillon, Ohio Historic Farms program administrator.
Henry County has the most added so far in 2024, with five farms. Wood County had three more added. Seneca, Allen, Ottawa, and Huron counties each had two added. Defiance, Fulton, Sandusky, Hancock, Williams, and Paulding counties each have had one more farm added to the list so far this year, ODA records show.
Lucas County hasn’t had any thus far in 2024.
Those same ODA records show the Bayer Farm in Seneca County, which dates back to 1853, is the oldest family farm added to the list so far this year.
Four other family-owned farms from northwest Ohio that have been certified in 2024 began their operations in the 1800s, including Earth Heart Farms LLC (1883) in Ottawa County; the Scholl Farm (1895) in Henry County; the Shaull Farm (1898) in Williams County, and the Goetzinger-Boehm Family Farm (1899) in Hancock County.
Ohio's oldest farm, according to records in the state agriculture department's online database, is the John Smiley farm in Adams County, southeast of Cincinnati. Created in 1772, it is one of 21 farms that have been in the same family since at least 1803, when Ohio became a state.
Ms. Dillon said there is no requirement for farms to apply for certification in exactly their 100th year.
Only four of those 22 farms — the Kuras farm in Fulton County, the Weickert Farm in Sandusky County, and the Hillis Farm and the Smith Farm, both in Huron County — began their operations in 1924.
Ohio’s Historic Family Farms Program is part of the ODA’s Farmland Preservation Office .
Ty Higgins, Ohio Farm Bureau Federation spokesman, said it is “vital” to keep as much farmland intact as possible, given that near half of the state is comprised of agricultural land and that agriculture is one of its leading industries.
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