Orrson Custom Farming Ltd. is a limited liability company
formed by Jim and Jon Orr, a father and son in Apple Creek Ohio
Jim's father, Clayton, and his friend Leonard Schnell filled
silos for people in the 50's and 60's using wagons and a variety of choppers. Jim remembers pulling wagons when his
feet could barely reach the pedals of the tractor.
Going through papers after my mother's death, we discovered
that my father worked on a combine crew in the late 30's...something I never knew. We have no idea, now, who
he worked for back then and there is no one alive who can tell us. This
life must be in Jon's blood on both sides.
After Jim and Suzy joined the farm in 1968, we continued
to make extra income this way. At one point we owned a "Uni"...a Uniharvester which we thought was quite the machine.
We also harvested for a time with a "Field Bitch"...as they affectionally called our Field Queen.
Some of Jim's fondest childhood memories are working with those men. They
taught him the value of hard work and honesty in dealing with your customers. Jim also has great memories
of the farm women's huge noon meals.
Clayton and Leonard are now gone, but we like to think that Clayton would be very proud
of our operation today. When Jim looks back at those days, he thinks how loosely woven their "partnership"
was...each just provided what equipment they had and worked as much as they were able. A far cry from the multi-paged
legal agreements of today. He also said that with the small equipment they ran, they probably used as much
fuel for their entire season as we now use in one day (and think of how cheap fuel was back then!)
Jim and Clayton had formed a partnership in a dairy
operation, "Orrson Farms" in the 60's and over the years we increased the herd from 30 cow to 275 cows.
Clayton was just like Jim and Jon..always willing to try new things. He had one of the first milking parlors in this
area...a double two! Jim can remember lines of cars parked along the road as people came to watch this new idea
in practice.
The farm has undergone a lot of changes in the years we have
been married! Farm Credit loved us!
Jon grew up loving machinery (cows..not so much) so that was the part of the operation
he focused on. His wife, Missy, grew up on a dairy farm and liked the cows, but as their family grew, it was obvious
she couldn't spend the time in the barn and raise the kids.
After a lot of heavy soul searching, in 1995-96 we sold the dairy herd and Jim and Jon formed a new partnership "Orrson Custom Farming Ltd." to encompass the cropping,
custom harvesting and heifer raising operations.
Jim and Suzy still live on the original farmstead..in fact, they reside in the
house in which he was born. Jon, Missy, and their children live just across the road in their new home.
We truly strive to do the best job we can for each and every customer. We like
to think of them as friends as well as customers. Our goal is to help them get their crops in at the optimum time with
minimum damage to their fields. We take pride in the job we do for each one of them. We really
enjoy hearing back from them about the excellent quality of the feed.
Many of our customers have achieved amazing herd averages and we are pleased to have
helped by doing a good job of harvesting their crops.
