(DECATUR) At the Indiana State Fair today is a celebrity cow milking contest. But the real people behind the dairy industry in Indiana have been featured each day at the fair. One of those is the Kunkel family of Decatur.

Their farm has been operating in the same family since 1845, about 20 miles south of Ft. Wayne.

“I do most of the morning milking, so my day starts about 2:30,” said Fred J. Kunkel, now the senior of the father-son operation. He said that even includes Thanksgiving and Christmas.

It’s mostly a dairy operation with about 100 milk cows. They farm their own corn and hay for the cows on about 300 acres.

The senior Kunkel said that when he began farming, his uncle would tell him about how they farmed with horses not long ago.

“And now we’ve got huge tractors, GPS. So just in this short period of time, that’s how much it’s changed.”

He said that the farm used to be more general, but that now most farms have become specialized.

“And we went the dairy route.”

Both men are college-educated, with Fred J. having graduated from Purdue.

They have also both tried other work. Fred J. was a banker in the 1980’s, but returned to farm work. Fred W. has also tried other jobs, but says he was also called back to the family farm.

“I just decided, no, this is what I want to do. It’s nice being self-employed, being outside working among the animals and nature.”