HAUSMANN FARM

QWho are the current owners and how long have they been in business?

AJan and Joyce Hausmann have three children, two boys and a daughter. They had another son, but he died at the age of one and a half. In 2018, they started Hausmann Farms, LLC to include our two sons, Karl and Benjamin.

Jan started milking cows for his dad when he was 14 years old. Jan milked for 46 years. We sold our dairy cattle in 2018. We kept the beef cattle until Dec. 19, 2022. Now, there is no livestock on the farm. Our boys enjoy working the land, becoming agronomists of the land, harvesting and plowing. This is an educational occupation in many ways.

QWho started the business and what year did it begin?

AJohann and Louise Wussow arrived in the United States with their family in 1881. They had six children, one of which was Franz Wussow.

Franz was 18 years old when he arrived in the United States. He married Ernestine (Schoeneck) in 1886. Franz purchased land in the Leaf Valley area of around 600 acres. This included the present site of the Hausmann Farms in Ida Township. Franz was known as the Potato King along with other crops that he raised.

Franz purchased this homestead in 1909. Franz and Ernestine had six children. Alfred Wussow, one of Franz’s sons, received 111 acres of land from Franz in 1924. Alfred and his wife Laura (Fritz) began farming. They raised cows, pigs and chickens, along with their crops. They purchased another 40 acres of land in 1939.

They farmed until 1950 and then sold the farm to their daughter and husband, Werner and Virginia Hausmann, who had two sons, Kevin and Jan.

Besides the land crops, they also raised cows, pigs and chickens. Over the years, they sold the pigs and the chickens. Just the dairy cattle were left on the farm.

In 1971, Werner and Virginia purchased another 71 acres and in 1978, they purchased another 55 acres of land.

They farmed until 1991, when they sold it to their son, Jan, and his wife, Joyce (Zach).

QAs the current owners, why was it important to you to keep the family business going?

AKeeping the farming business going continues to be important to raise the commodities that are needed in the United States instead of purchasing these same commodities from other countries.

QWhat impact, do you feel, a generational business has on our community?

AAs a farmer, it is very sad to hear others say, “What do you need farmers for? Just go to the grocery store and get what you need.”

People need to know why farming is so important. It is part of our national food chain. As farmers, we work long hours to produce crops to be manufactured into food items that arrive on the store shelves. Without farmers, you wouldn’t have food to eat. Does farming impact our community? Absolutely and in so many ways! Providing food to eat is number one. Providing jobs at the elevators to receive commodities, manufacturing employees to produce the food products, freight deliverers to bring the food to the stores and needing the grocery associates to sell consumers the product. Farmers produce many employment opportunities that people are unaware of all being part of the food chain. People don’t realize what a farmer must go through to provide you food to eat.

Farming is tough work. Farmers do an overwhelming amount of physical work. Not everything is done by machine. Over the years, the cost of input production has risen so dramatically, that it is hard to make a living just with farming. Our whole family needs to work off the farm to survive. It wasn’t that way many, many years ago. Farmers way back when were able to make an honest living by what they raised, whether it was crops, commodities or animals. It is a way different story today.