Life on Summit County's last dairy farm: Matt Hartong runs the family farm in Green

Yahoo

13 hours ago

There was an undertone of urgency in Matt Hartong's voice as he talked about his family's farm June 6.
It was a day of on-and-off rain following a sopping wet May that gave Hartong and farmers throughout Northeast Ohio few opportunities to get their crops planted.
Much of what's grown at the Hartong Farm is to feed the cows, which, as he talks, need milking.
And the rain is about to start up.
Again.
Located in Green about a mile from the Stark County line, the Hartongs own the last dairy farm in Summit County.
You can find it in the 2022 Census of Agriculture report released last year — it's the lone "1" under Summit County on page 11, where farms with 200 to 499 cattle and calves are listed.
The steady drips and downpours of last month set Hartong back planting his farm's corn, soybeans, wheat and alfalfa.
"Everything we grow is to feed the cows," he said.
Hartong said the soil composition of his family's farm, made up of owned and rented land, allowed him to get more in the ground than some farms in the area. The Hartongs own about 250 acres, he said, and lease about the same amount.
"We have not caught up," he said in an interview at the farm. "Last year, we were done planting before June. People in other counties have a lot of clay."
He was able to get at least something planted. But one of his farming friends wasn't able to put anything in the ground by mid-May.
Some of the Hartong Farm crops will come in later than usual, he said, which sets off a domino effect focused on keeping the 200 cows fed and productive. It will be a different challenge this year, as it is every year.
Despite the rain June 6, he was able to get about 15 acres in that day, he said. The day before, he was able to get in the first hay cutting.
"You can imagine, because it's been so wet, some of the hay is great, some of it is bad," he said.
Another domino in the long string that runs through the business of family farming.
As president of the Summit County Farm Bureau, Hartong is aware of the pressures on family-owned farms, which have been unrelenting in recent years.
One of the most pervasive is the pressure to sell to developers, seen in Green, which has grown into the county's fourth largest city over about 30 years. Residential and commercial development has transformed what was once a much more rural community into a thriving, young city.
What's good for some, however, isn't always good for an industry dependent on lots of acreage.
"Much of the city used to be farms," Hartong said.
What happened — the transformation from rural to suburban — in Green has played out for decades across the U.S.
In its census of agriculture study released in 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported 141,733 fewer farms in the nation in 2022 compared to 2017. Farm acreage also declined.
American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said in 2024 after the Agriculture Department report was released that a variety of factors are threatening farm sustainability. Those, he said, include increased regulations, rising supply costs, lack of available labor and weather disasters all combining to make farming profitability difficult or impossible.
Those conditions create pressure on many family farms to sell, often to developers. For a city, the prospect of hundreds or thousands of new income-tax payers is attractive, promising revenue rewards a farm can't compete with.
Fortunately for the farm started by his grandfather, it's located in an area of Green crafted for agriculture, Hartong said.
"We live in a zoned section of the city that is designed to stay the way it is," he said. "They call it the green section of the city."
Hartong said he and his family have considered ideas to improve the profitability of the farm, such as agritourism and fall festivals.
"That is a very reasonable thing to consider into the future," he said.
Some smaller farms, however, have become overwhelmed by the challenges listed by Duvall, and need help, Hartong said.
"(It) needs attention from state and federal governments," he said.
Hartong, who started his career in radio, said he didn't anticipate as a youth that he would be running the family farm.
"It was never something I planned on doing as a kid," he said. "As kids, we saw the surrounding areas get more and more developed."
At a fork in the road, however, when he had to choose between relocating for his career on the airwaves or maintaining the family business, he and his wife chose life on the farm.
The leisurely life of Green Acres, it's not.
Hartong, as the only full-time farm worker for his family's farm, keeps busy while the sun is up and keeps going when it's down.
"It is a challenge," he said.
It's a challenge keeping the farm productive, the cows fed and milked, the machines running, getting the crops planted that will feed the cows, then growing and harvesting them. Time for family life waxes and wanes with the flow of the seasons.
"It did take my wife (time) to adjust to the demands of the schedule," he said.
They built a house down the road to stay close.
Hartong said his family is all on board with farm life, and his three children — age 7, 6 and 2 — are a good bet for continuing the family business.
"My kids love it," he said. "… They want nothing more than to be over here."
Despite the rain, the endless work hours, fluctuating markets, inflation and the sometimes ornery cows, Hartong said he expects to keep Hartong Farm operating for a long time to come.
The furrowed fields of the family farm, he said, have set themselves too deep to resist.
"My goal is to retire here," he said. "That is what I want to do."
Leave a message for Alan Ashworth at 330-996-3859 or email him at [e-mail]. Follow him on Twitter at @newsalanbeaconj or Facebook at www.facebook.com/alan.newsman.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Matt Hartong talks about keeping family farm going in city of Green