By RICK A. RICHARDS
Indiana Correspondent CEDAR LAKE, Ind. — Reaching a 100-year milestone is quite an accomplishment in any venture. So when the Huseman family’s Homestead Farm celebrated its 100th anniversary earlier this summer, it was cause for celebration.
Friends and family were invited to the 210-acre Angus farm for a cookout. But it was also a bittersweet moment for Charles (Chuck) Huseman, the third generation of Husemans to live on the farm.
By any measure, Huseman is successful. In addition to the family farm, he operates his own company, FFC Fencing Co., a major supplier of agricultural, industrial, commercial and residential fencing in Indiana, Illinois and Michigan.
But there are times, said Huseman, when he feels like a failure. That’s because the family’s Angus business won’t make it to a fourth generation.
The farm was started by his grandfather in 1910 and over the three generations it’s been in the family, it has produced dozens of award-winning Angus. Today, though, it’s more hobby than working farm.
“A lot of times I get the feeling I’m the failure of the generations,” said Huseman. “My granddad and dad, they put their nose to the grindstone. No matter how much was on the wagon, they kept pushing. When I started pushing, I thought it was pretty heavy.
“I think my dad was proud of the business I started, but he was a cattle person. Until the day he died, he couldn’t understand how I could be away from that farm.”
Huseman still lives on the farm, but instead of the 125 head of Angus he bred and sold three decades ago, today, there are just seven head of cattle. That’s why Huseman is reluctant to call himself a cattleman today.
Still, the farm raises cattle and sells them online as freezer beef and hamburger. It’s a business that allows Huseman to stay close to his family’s roots but doesn’t take a lot of time away from his primary business of building fences. (For more information on the farm, visit www.hfbeef.com)
Huseman’s grandfather, Joseph, started the farm in 1910, and by 1918, it had a national reputation for raising some of the most prized Angus cattle in the country.
“He was a real good livestock person,” said Huseman, adding that at the time, some of the best Angus cattle in the country were being bred by the Rockefellers and J.C. Penney.
“He was able to compete as far as showing cattle goes, but to also provide a living for the family. At that time it wasn’t as rare as it is now,” said Huseman.
By the time his father, William, took over the farm, the family was able to make a living with 60 to 80 registered Angus.
“They were able to help all their kids go to college and provide what we needed, but we were driving an old rusted truck that was wired together,” said Huseman.
“As I was growing up I got bitten by the cattle bug. I went to Purdue and made up my mind I was going to make a living in the cattle business. We started doing a lot of artificial insemination. My dad was a cool guy and didn’t say absolutely no. He may have been a bit skeptical and I know his dad would have turned over in his grave if he saw us putting good Angus semen into Simmental and Chianina so we could produce nice crossbred cows.”
But Huseman quickly realized being a cattle breeder took time but didn’t bring in a lot of money. “The cattle business requires a lot of hours to do it right,” said Huseman. “You’re not going to be successful unless you put the time in. I was willing to do that, but on an hourly basis, it simply wasn’t doing the job.” He didn’t feel as if he was providing for his family as well as his grandfather and father had provided for theirs.
For Huseman, part of being a cattleman was building sturdy fences that would keep the herd where it was supposed to be. He was good at it, and in 1974, he built his first fence for someone who wrote him a check.
“I had learned on the farm how to build a fence and I realized there’s a lot more market for that than there is for cattle.” By the early 1980s, Huseman was spending more time at his fence business than he was on the farm.
“I almost feel uneasy saying I’m in the cattle business. I grew up with all the other cattlemen in the area, and I feel like I’m a quitter,” said Huseman. “We have a few cows, but we’re not in the cattle business like they are.”
Huseman’s two sons have no interest in raising cattle (oldest son Mike is an attorney in Illinois and youngest son Joe works at FFC Fencing), so he figures he is the last generation in the family that can say it was in the cattle business.
“It’s something I enjoy, but it’s a different situation today,” said Huseman. “I’m a helluva cattleman, but I’m not going to make that commitment to make a living at it. I really believe that no matter what you do you have to give it 100 percent. You can’t get rich at something doing it halfway. That’s why I’m not as successful in the cattle business. We’re successful here (FFC Fencing) because I’m committed here.”
Huseman loves telling stories about following his dad around on the farm and working with him and the cattle. One of his favorites is about a steer his father raised and he helped train.
“It got to the point that at the fair you were able to ride it with a halter and a show stick,” said Huseman, who still occasionally judges cattle at fairs. “Some steers you wouldn’t be able to that.
“How my father knew how to do that, I don’t know. He just knew he could do it.”
Huseman is proud of the farm’s history and he has it on display outside his back door.
In a building he calls The Chicken House, photos, trophies and other memorabilia of the farm are on display.
The building, constructed on the site of an old chicken coop, is made of old fencing, tin roof sheets and other material from old farm buildings. There’s a fireplace in one corner, a bar at the other end of the room and lots of chairs for lounging.
“There’s no TV or phone in here,” said Huseman. “It’s a place to come and relax.”
It’s also a place to come and look back on the farm’s 100 years of history. |
