SEI Farms Help Set Hoosier Homestead Award Record

Nearly 100 family farms took home the award at this year's Indiana State Fair.

Photo by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. 

(Indianapolis, Ind.) – A record number of family farms have been presented with the Hoosier Homestead Award.

Lt. Governor Suzanne Crouch, along with Indiana State Department of Agriculture Director Bruce Kettler, presented 96 farming families with the Hoosier Homestead Award during the Indiana State Fair on August 9 – setting a new record in the program’s 40-year history.

To be named a Hoosier Homestead, farms must be owned by the same family for more than 100 consecutive years and consist of 20 acres or more in size or produce more than $1,000 in agriculture products per year.

Families are eligible for three different distinctions base on age of the farm. They are Centennial (100 years), Sesquicentennial (150 years) and Bicentennial (200 years).

Local recipients include:

• Hopping, Dearborn County, Centennial, Sesquicentennial, Bicentennial (1816)
• Fledderman, Franklin County, Centennial (1918)
• Logan, Franklin County, Centennial (1919)
• Siefert, Franklin County, Sesquicentennial (1869)
• Narwold, Ripley County, Sesquicentennial (1866)
• Naylor, Ripley County, Sesquicentennial (1846)
• Obendorf, Ripley County, Sesquicentennial (1865)
• Otte/Webster, Ripley County, Sesquicentennial (1866)
• Hall, Switzerland County, Centennial (1908)

“The vast majority of farms in Indiana are family owned and operated,” Crouch said. “They are the foundation we rely on as a society, which is something we must never take for granted. It was an honor to recognize these families at the great Indiana State Fair.”

Since the program’s inception in 1976, more than 5,600 families have received the award.