60-year partnership built on handshake

Hordville natives look back on six decades of farming 

For 60 years, Harold Oretegren (right) has been farming Shorty Hahn’s land, one mile west of Hordville. The relationship began with a handshake in 1960.
For 60 years, Harold Oretegren (right) has been farming Shorty Hahn’s land, one mile west of Hordville. The relationship began with a handshake in 1960.

Over the more than six decades of the farming partership D.L. “Shorty” Hahn, 97, and Harold Ortegren, 81, there has never been a written agreement between them. However, the business relationship between the two Hordville area natives is built on a mutual trust rooted in the individual character of both men.  “(Dad) stuck with Harold and Harold stuck with Dad, and they never had a contract,” …