Record year for Indiana farms receiving historic homestead award. Recognized for their families’ longstanding commitment to agriculture, 106 Indiana family farms were presented the Hoosier Homestead Award today at the Indiana State Fair from Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and Indiana State Department of Agriculture Director Bruce Kettler.
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, or produce more than $1,000 in agricultural products per year.
Based on the age of the farm, families are eligible for three different distinctions of the Hoosier Homestead Award. They can receive the Centennial Award for 100 years, the Sesquicentennial Award for 150 years, or the Bicentennial Award for 200 years of ownership.
Since the program’s inception in 1976, over 6,100 families have received the award. Often, a Hoosier Homestead farm is easily recognized because most recipients proudly display their awarded sign on their property.
For this ceremony, four Indiana farms received the Bicentennial Award for 200 years of continuous ownership. They include the Speer family farm from Jennings county, the Hartman family farm from Parke county and the Layton Acres, Inc. family farm, and the Logan family farm, both from Rush county. Locally families that were honored were in Daviess county Arvin/Bradley family Centennial award, in Dubois Hopf farms were honored with Centennial award, Glenn Menke and Melvin Menke honored with Sesquicentennial award. also being honored with the Sesquicentennial award in Dubois county was the Verkamp’s. also honored from Dubois county was the Weyer family they were honored with the Centennial & Sesquicentennial homestead award. and in martin county, the Keller & Hewitt family was honored with the Centennial homestead award. For more information about the Hoosier Homestead Award program, please visit isda.in.gov.
