Nestled in Wakefield Valley of Carroll County, Maryland, the Fritz family has been farming for over a century, passing the land and its legacy down through the generations.
For their continued dedication to Maryland agriculture, Governor Wes Moore and Secretary of Agriculture Kevin Atticks, inducted the family into the Governor’s Agriculture Hall of Fame for 2023.
“My great-great grandparents, they would have been in shock,” said Jessica [Fritz] Little (Animal Science ’00), who runs the farm alongside her father Daniel, her brother Jeffrey and his wife Diana, and husband, Jeff Little. “I hope they’d be proud that it’s still here, that something they started in 1912 is still here, and that it’s thriving and successful.”
Since Charles and Carrie Fritz founded their dairy farm on 90 acres outside of New Windsor in 1912, the Fritz family farm has seen uncounted changes. In 2010, fourth generation Daniel Fritz (Dairy Science ’70) purchased the property and established the farm officially as Fritz Farm, LLC and made his children— Jessica and Jeffrey— minority partners.
Involved with 4-H and Future Farmers of America (FFA) growing up, Fritz always had a passion for working with the dairy cattle on the family farm. “My brother started showing at the county fairs when he was eight, and I naturally followed what he did,” Fritz said. “He gravitated towards the field crop stuff—tractor driving and that sort of thing—but dairy judging was always my favorite.”
Through those years, the Fritz Farm enjoyed profitable milkers and a thriving dairy business. Unfortunately, after a series of tragedies for the family in 2015, including the loss of her grandfather Fritz, her mother’s father, and her mother—within months of one another—Fritz and her immediate family were faced with difficult choices.
“We were still profitable and making money milking cows; we had built our herd up and our genetics were continuing to improve, so we were doing well,” she said. “But we got to a point that we had to decide whether to hire someone to help us or sell the cows, which was the hardest decision we ever made in our lives.”
They sold. Today, Fritz Farm LLC is a crop farm, selling wheat, straw, barley, soybeans, corn, and hay. The expanding operation acquired several more parcels of cropland making the farm nearly 480 acres. They maintain a humble herd of Hereford beef crossbred calves, and still keep a couple dairy cows in residence at a neighbor’s farm for Jessica and Jeffrey’s children to show for 4-H and FFA activities as their own children continue carrying on the family lineage.
While Fritz Farm always employed the latest technologies managing their dairy herds, they are also progressive in their crop farming. A Climate Field View software helps with field crop management and data collection; a GPS for fertilizer and chemical application enables increased accuracy; and a 2014 installation of solar panels on the property provides 100 percent of the farm’s electricity needs.
Since the founding of the farm, conservation and environmental standards have been important to the Fritz family. They participate in the Natural Resources Conservation Service Conservation Stewardship Program and the Maryland Cover Crop program.
“Anyone who wants their farm to be productive is going to do what they need to do to take care of it,” Fritz said. The entirety of the farmland has also been preserved through the Maryland Agriculture Land Preservation Foundation. “I don’t think people become farmers if they don't love the land to start with.”
Jessica and Jeffrey are now equal partners in the business with their father Daniel. Jessica, along with husband Jeff (Dietetics ’98), now raise their two teenage boys in the original farmhouse. Her brother Jeffrey and his wife also help to carry on the tradition with their three daughters, all of whom participate in 4-H and work on the farm as well.
“When Charles and Carrie bought the original 90 acres and farmhouse that are the backbone of Fritz Farm, they were looking for a place their family could call home,” Fritz wrote in her petition to the Governor’s Agriculture Hall of Fame. “More than a century later, the Fritzes are still dedicated to farming and family, to sustaining the land, and to being an integral part of the agricultural community.”
by Laura Wormuth : Momentum Magazine Summer 2023