HISTORY OF FREEDOM FARMS
In 1900, Hermann Bischoff purchased his first fifty acres of farm land for a total of $2700.00. He cultivated and improved this land for five years, after which he sold this land and purchased 120 acres in Paulding County. He then sold this land and moved back to Henry County where he bought sixty acres of land that is part of the family farm in its current state. Over the next few years his farm grew to a total of 120 acres and was called Elm Swamp Farms. When he was ready to retire from farming in 1942, his son Albert took over and farmed until his son Arnold bought the farm in 1957.
Arnold married Eleanore Badenhop in 1952. Her family was also a multi generation farm family. Johan Badenhop started their family farm in 1872 which is the current homestead of Larry and office of Freedom Farms. The farm was past down to his son Henry Badenhop, and then to his son Carl Badenhop. Arnold started to farm their land in 1958. In 1973 Arnold purchased the Badenhop Farm after Carl passed away. In 1974, Arnold’s son Larry started to farm with him, until 1991 when Arnold retired.
In 1996, Eric started farming with Larry. They raised cattle for the next few years along with raising their crops. They now farm a total of 300 acres. They grew corn, beans, wheat, and hay. The family farm was continuing to grow through innovative farming practices such as no till.
In 2002, the farm was devastated when a barn fire claimed 10,000 bales of straw and much of their equipment. Eric and Larry refused to let this stop them. This gave Larry and Eric an opportunity to start an official partnership. They rebuilt their barn, and replaced their equipment.
Over the past seven years, they have continued to use new and innovative technologies such as GPS mapping, yield monitoring, grid sampling, variable rate fertilizer application, and RTK auto-steer guidance systems. They have also started to experiment with cover crops such as Oil Seed Radish and Austrian Winter Peas. Freedom Farms has branched out in the custom farming field with their strip tilling, fertilizer spreading, tillage, and combining. The most recent addition to their farming operation has been becoming an Authorized DM AgCam reseller.