Though they also raise corn, soybeans, and hay at Ayars Family Farm in Mechanicsburg, John and Bonnie Ayars are, at their core, dairy farmers.
John’s parents, Jack and Gladys Ayars, started the farm, which they called Land of Living Farm, when they arrived from Kansas after the Dust Bowl. John and Bonnie took over after they married in 1972 and grew it into one of the larger such operations in the state. They’ve been passionate advocates for agriculture in Ohio and beyond ever since.
Bonnie Ayars, right, and her son, Lucas, represent the fourth and fifth generations of farmers in the family.
But it’s not just milk or even the marketing of genetics from their purebred cattle that’s at the heart of the business. From the start, it’s the educational aspect of the farm that appealed to Bonnie and John, who are members of Piqua-based Pioneer Electric Cooperative. Each summer, the Ayarses welcome hundreds of local elementary school students to the education center they built on the farm. Visitors get to meet and touch famous cows like Buckeye Bessie, Honeybun, and Bravo. They feed calves, try to milk a cow, and sample ice cream made on the farm.
Bonnie, who graduated from Ohio State, has been a dairy specialist with OSU Extension, where she teaches dairy cattle selection and evaluation courses, since 2006. “I love teaching and being with kids,” she says. “It regenerates you. Nothing will keep you as young as working with kids. It’s a part of my life now and I couldn’t live without it.”
That passion for ag education started early. “I was 9 years old the first time I showed a calf at the Ohio State Fair,” Bonnie says. “I coach dairy judging teams and have taught judging classes for 53 years. We have a long history with the Ohio State Fair.”
In fact, the couple was inducted into the Ohio State Fair Hall of Fame in 2011. The National Dairy Shrine honored Bonnie with its Pioneer Award in 2021 in recognition of her contributions to the dairy industry — noting particularly Bonnie and John’s efforts over the years in breeding and developing one of the nation’s finest Guernsey herds at their farm, which has produced more than 20 national champions. She’s one of only a handful of women to have earned the award. “If I was supposed to find a glass ceiling, I must have missed it,” she says.
John and Bonnie have been honored with the American Guernsey Association’s Distinguished Service Award and are in OSU’s Dairy Science Hall of Service. Bonnie was Ohio Agriculture Woman of the Year in 1993 and the World Dairy Expo Woman of the year in 1994. Along with state and national events, both have judged dairy shows all over the world, including the World Dairy Expo.
However, it’s John and Bonnie’s youngest son, Lucas Ayars — part of the fifth generation of farmers in the family — who is responsible for the farm’s most widespread recognition outside of the industry. While attending Ohio State University, he developed a capstone project for producing, marketing, and selling homemade ice cream made with the family’s pasture-fed Guernsey cow milk. The family put his plan into action in 2010, and now Ayars Family Farm Ice Cream is sold at more than 30 local markets in western Ohio. Popular flavors include chunky cookie, brownie cow, and buttercup, as well as seasonal favorites such as peaches ’n’ cream in July, Buckeye Bessie in August, and pumpkin in October.
“If you want to be successful on a dairy farm, you can’t focus on the milk alone,” Lucas says. “You must look for ways to use the milk to make high-demand items, like cheese and ice cream — consumers typically eat more milk than they drink.”
Their farm also was the first stop on Luke Bryan’s 2018 Farm Tour, the country music superstar’s concert series to benefit farmers. That show drew more than 20,000 fans to the Ayarses’ hayfield.
Of course, while the Ayars family has experienced success over the years, they have also had their share of hardships as well. “There is good and there is bad in life, and we have walked both paths,” John says. “It makes us stronger and makes us appreciate where we are today. We have come a long way, and we are grateful for it all.”
