90-year-old pioneered farm industry’s cutting edge technology

Herman Hackman of Seymour went to work for Jackson-Jennings Co-op in Brownstown in the early 1950s.

His first job was sacking feed, but it wasn’t a job he held for very long.

“They didn’t know what to do with me,” said Hackman, who had recently earned a degree from Purdue University in agronomy and animal husbandry.

Hackman, who turned 90 on Aug. 22, said the local co-op had never hired a college graduate before they took him on board.

But he quickly found his niche, because it was a time when fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides were being introduced to increase yields.

“They would go to the manager, and he didn’t know what to say,” Hackman said. “So he would call and ask me to come up from sacking feed to help discuss their problems.”

During that time, Hackman also helped set up a soil testing lab. Soil testing was another newer innovation at the time.

“I was ready for it,” Hackman said of the changing face of technology.

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