For Charles Coblentz, dairy farming is the fulfillment of a boyhood dream. “I can remember working for money when I was 5 years old,” Charles said. “Forty-seven years later I bought the farm that I picked cotton on.”
Charles was born and raised in Mayes County, Oklahoma. He and wife Ellen own more than 3,000 acres with their three sons.
Charles worked in the cotton fields with his mother at a 368-acre farm three miles west of the Coblentz homeplace. The Coblentz family now owns that land, which lies in Rogers County. At 14 years old, Charles started working in the hay fields to earn enough money to start his dairy herd. He bought heifers from local farmers with the money he earned.
In February 1972, when Charles was a 17-year-old junior in high school, his first milk cow calved. In April 1972, he started milking for money. He graduated from Chouteau High School in 1973.
Charles and Ellen married in 1975, after she graduated from Pryor High School. Charles owned 30 milk cows.
“We rented the homeplace from his mom and bought our first piece of land in 1978,” Ellen said. Their home is located south of Mazie, one mile east of the Rogers County line.
The Coblentz family now has 300 milk cows, all of them 100 percent Holstein.
This year, they were chosen as the Mayes County Farm Family of the Year.
Charles and Ellen have four grown children and four grandchildren. Their three sons work on the farm.
With 6,000 acres of land in operation, the Coblentzes keep their farm diversified between crops, milking and raising beef cattle. They also have a chemical fertilizer dealership. The family has been dealing in retail fertilizer since 1990.
The Coblentz commercial beef cattle number approximately 240. The bulls are registered Angus. The family has raised beef cattle for the last seven years.
—From The Daily Times
