2012 Farm City Day to be held at Jon-De Farm
by Kelsie Hoitomt
TOWN OF RUSH RIVER – Jon-De Farm Incorporated is celebrating its’ 100 year anniversary by hosting the annual St. Croix County Farm City Day on August 11, 2012.
The farm is co-owned by Dean Doornink and his son Todd.
This will be the 31st Farm City Day which began back in 1981 on the farm of Bob and Mary Zwald.
Farming has been in the Doornink genes for over a century now. It began with John Doornink, Dean’s grandfather, who purchased a farming facility just outside of the Village of Baldwin in 1912.
He made the decision to move his family from outside of Emerald to Baldwin so his daughters would be able to enroll in school.
“Back then you had to live within a certain distance to the school because there were no buses so my grandfather decided to move his farm,” explained Dean Doornink.
In 1941 Dean’s father, John H. Doornink purchased the family farm after his father passed away.
The farm was fairly small at the time and had a variety of milking cows, hogs, chickens and horses until Dean’s father converted it into a dairy and registered Holstein farm.
In the mid-1950’s, the Doornink farm under John H. Doornink was recognized for having the highest herd average in the state of Wisconsin.
John and his wife Margaret had three other children John, James and Mona, as well as Dean.
All of us went into the family farm business after college,” said Doornink, who graduated from the University of Madison.
In the fall of 1990, the farm expanded and the facility began to be built where it currently stands today to the south of Baldwin on 30th Avenue.
Little by little the newer Jon-De Farm facility began to grow and expand onto the 40 acres of land it currently sits on under the ownership of Dean and Todd.
