Bachman Family Farms

The core values of faith, integrity, family, hard work, stewardship and feeding the hungry have been hallmarks of Bachman Family Farms for seven generations. David and Amy Bachman are bringing a fresh vision and new energy for the next generation of their Deer Creek, Oklahoma, operation.“I started on the combine when I was like, 11. I grew up riding with dad, but he went through the 80s, which was the farm financial crisis, he got a college degree,” Bachman said. “He told all my brothers, there’s three brothers besides me, to get a college degree and have a backup plan.”Bachman’s backup plan was accounting at Oklahoma State University where he met the love of his life, Amy before coming back to live on the family farm in Deer Creek. David started banking in 2007 while Amy pursued elementary education.“When I started in banking until about 2018, I worked at the bank as an ag loan officer and commercial loan officer and farmed,” Bachman said. “My farm grew to about 1,000 acres and I got on a bank board of directors, and I was chairing the asset-liability committee.”His involvement progressively shifted to the farm and by 2020, the Bachmans were farming 4,000 acres, started a direct-to-consumer beef business and raised 100 Red Angus and crossbred cattle. by Emily Zahurones Growing up in the business Farming as a family business was a clear part of Bachman’s future from a young age and only continued to grow.“I bought cows when I was 16 and then I started getting my own land when I was 18. I got an 80 (acres) that dad let me put beans on,” Bachman said. “Then I got another farm. It was 110 acres and that was ‘92. By the end of college, I was at 640 acres.”The Bachman homestead is over 100 years old and has been thriving under the family name for seven generations. Bachman remarked that direct-to-consumer marketing wasn’t even a new concept – it’s just done a little differently from his great grandfather Merble.“My great grandpa, he lived up north here. He would every year, periodically, you’d have a fattened calf, probably a steer and he would butcher it. And he would lay it, they didn’t have a pickup truck in those days, it was probably something like a Model T, but he would lay a sheet out in the back seat and then he would lay the meat out,” Bachman said. “He would drive around and sell to people or neighbors or whatever, until he ran out. My grandmother told us that story and it’s like, well, holy cow, we’ve been selling consumer direct grass-fed beef for 100 years.”The farmhouse was built in 1919 with additions in the 1950s. As time progressed, so did on-farm technologies and equipment. The family’s crops have historically included pumpkins, cotton and wheat.“My grandpa, after World War II, came back and forth. I think that was basically moldboard plowing. Then they had an open air combine and my great grandfather had run a custom threshing crew,” Bachman said. “They had a self-propelled, cab-less combine and tractors and they plowed everything and planted wheat. That was pretty much the way it was for at least 20 years.”Fast forward and the family started investing more into the cattle operation side.“They added stocker cattle, I think pretty well in the 80s, when my dad came back. We started experimenting with no till in about 2000 or so and over the next five to 10 years, we converted entirely no till. That was mainly for the ability to rotate crops, and the reduced need for labor,” Bachman said. “Labor is one of the biggest challenges I think that we face as an industry.”Looking to the Future by Emily Zahurones Bachman Family Farms beef is certified through A Greener World, Certified Grass Fed and Animal Welfare Approved. Today, the couple looks to the future of direct-to-consumer marketing and sustainability.“We started doing more regenerative stuff in 2016 or so and we added a lot of precision technology in 2012,” Bachman said. To benefit their constituents, the Bachmans offer over 12 varieties of beef boxes through thei