The following article about the Eldon Haberkamp family farm was published in The Lima News on December 7, 1959. The Haberkamp dairy farm was located at what is now 8244 Lutterbeck-Airport Road.
Eldon Haberkamp Holstein Herd At New Knoxville Champion Lot
By Bob Pendergast, Lima News Farm Editor
NEW KNOXVILLE—Holstein breeder Eldon Haberkamp, a mile and a half east of town on Rt. 219, is raising 50 to 55 pure bred animals on the 140 aces he was born and raised on. He sells 2300 pounds of milk every other day to Sealtest in Lima while building a 40-cow milk herd. Presently they have 30 milking.
An ex-Merchant Marine man, Eldon took over the dairy farm in 1949 from his father, Benjamin, a prominent area farmer before his death. A brother suffered polio while in the service and the family acres were left in Eldon’s care.
He started out in 1950 with his wife Lois, a classmate from New Knoxville High School days whom he married in 1948. They went up to Wisconsin dairy land that summer and bought some selected pure bred Holstein stock. Eldon remembers that in two or three days they picked up 25 head.
Eldon is developing his herd with the emphasis on the Rag Apple bloodline—one of the famous families in Holstein circles. He uses artificial insemination from the Central Ohio Breeders Association. His leading cow has produced 865 pounds of butterfat and 22,000 pounds of milk this year, where the average Holstein commercial cows may average 435 pounds and 12,000 pounds.
Each day brings its share of busy hours for Eldon and wife Lois, who milk twice a day—at 7 a. m. and 5:30 in the evening. In between times, the dairy farmer works at his chores while his wife is busy keeping house for three little boys—Ricky and Larry, in the elementary grades at New Knoxville, and Dean, a “kindergartner,” who stayed home sick “from too much turkey” the day we visited.
Summer is the busiest season for the dairy farmer, who has to plant and harvest his crops along with the milking. But hauling manure, lugging hay, making bedding for stock, and fence mending are just a few of the chores in winter.
In addition to his Holsteins, Eldon has 40 head of sheep, which he feeds out and keeps for wool. He’s on a three-year rotation with corn, oats and grass. His herd thrives on corn silage and hay supplemented with soybean meal.
Eldon summed up his future goals around the kitchen table, last Wednesday, with his wife and three young sons looking on, “I don’t care if the boys don’t want to go into farming. I’ll encourage them to get a college education.” He added, “I just want to earn a good living for the family during my lifetime.” He felt that reaching the 40-cow milking mark would give the family the kind of living successful farming should produce.
Note: This was a true family farm. I remember passing the place with my parents, and Lois Haberkamp was pulling their side delivery hay rake around the field with a ’57 or ’58 Dodge with the kids in the car.
Doug Hoelscher