PREPS FOR FARM TOUR Plainfield Farms

By Melissa Hart

Since 1944, the Simpson family has been on Plainfield Farms (D-3) in Belmont, Ohio. Orville Simpson, Sr., bought the ground and started the farm with grade Holsteins. Now 79 years later, the herd is made up of predominantly Registered Holsteins with Don and Danette Simpson at the helm.

Don took his first interest in the registered side of dairying in high school when he was involved in FFA. He bought his first Registered Holstein as a teenager and has since transitioned the entire herd into Registered Holsteins. Don and Danette met in 4-H, “We met when I was showing beef and hogs and I was from a dairy farm and Danette was showing dairy cows and she was from a beef farm.” Don continued, “It was Danette who got me interested in showing dairy, if it wasn’t for her, I’m not sure we would be showing today.”

The Simpsons will not only be a tour stop for the Ohio Convention tours, but they will also be hosting the Impact of Plainfield Herd Reduction Sale on Friday, March 3rd at 11:00 am. The catalog is online at DairyAgendaToday.com and Cowbuyer.com will be providing online bidding.

Over the years the breeding philosophy has evolved at Plainfield Farms. “Back in the 90s I had a young nutritionist who was about my age, and we were going to set the world on fire.” Don continued, “We had a rolling herd average pushing 30,000 pounds back when 30,000 was unheard of. Cows didn’t breed back, they had ulcers, my vet was giving me discounts on twisted stomach surgeries, and I had come to the conclusion that our 95-pound average, milking two times a day, was causing more problems than it was worth.”

Today the cows at Plainfield Farms are fed a ration with a high forage content, “I like cows with capacity, that can turn large amounts of forage into milk. Our cows have an 75-pound average with 4.2 percent fat.” Don continued, “We went from one extreme to the other. Now, my cows are healthy, the hoof trimmer isn’t doing near as much corrective and it’s just more profitable.”

The perfect size cow at Plainfield is 62-63 inches, “When we breed for type, we have to be careful not to get the cows too big and extreme,” Don said as he explained, they have a large variety of bulls they use in the herd. “I like to see a good cow family behind the bulls that we use.”

While Eyecandy, Has It All, Summerfest, and Sidekick, are some of the bulls they are currently using, deep pedigreed cow families have found a niche at Plainfield, “We are working with members of Frosty’s family, Goldwyn Brittney, Tri-Day Ashlyn, the PR Barbie family, the Rudy Missy family, Grayview B-D Chrissy, D-R-A August, and, of course, we have some members of the Roxy family that we are working with as well.”

The Simpsons have a 120 free stall barn and a double eight, parallel parlor with a special needs area. They also have a box stall barn where show cows and donor dams are housed.

Plainfield Farms has earned the PBR award for 15 years and has a BAA of 111.1. They milk 110 cows and farm approximately 450 acres. In addition, they have a 40 head beef cow-calf herd that Orville Jr., manages. They enjoy showing and garnered the Premier Exhibitor banner at the Ohio State Fair in 2022 and have partnered in cattle with a few breeders and friends in Ohio.

The Ohio Convention tour and the Impact of Plainfield Reduction Sale will be Friday, March 3rd at the farm, 65030 Plainfield Rd, Belmont, Ohio.