George Schmitt (1895-1976), Springfield, Missouri

George Schmitt was a recognized community and dairy leader in Southwest Missouri. He was born in 1895 on a farm west of Strafford in Greene County. George was a veteran of World War I. He came home from the U.S. Army and started working for the Frisco Railroad. There were layoffs from time to time and George, who had grown to love farming, decided he wanted steady work and dairy farming was the answer.

In 1923 George bought 53 acres of timbered land from his grandparents. That same year he married his wife Zelma. George and Zelma soon started dairying with a dozen cows of mixed breeding. They bottled milk on the farm and George delivered milk, each day for 23 years, to customers in Springfield. In 1932 he bought a registered Guernsey bull and in 1936 he added registered Guernsey females bringing his foundation herd to nine animals. From this beginning he and his family built a herd of 90 registered animals with 50 cows in milk.

George, and his son Ivan who became a partner in the operation, built a high producing herd by the use of good sires, DHI testing and careful culling. Good farming practices were followed with manure and commercial fertilizer generously used to bring the thin Ozark soil to a high level of fertility. Alfalfa became the backbone of their feeding program with the farm, which had grown to 355 acres of owned and leased land, producing all of the grain, hay, pasture and silage needed for the herd.

The Schmitts became well-known Guernsey breeders with many high producing cows of good type. Their cattle were exhibited at the Ozark Empire Fair and the State Fair winning many awards. George was an active promoter of Guernseys and encouraged many junior dairymen along the way. He served as Director of the Missouri Guernsey Breeders Association and as an officer of the local Guernsey association. He was instrumental in getting the Ozark Empire started and was Superintendent of the 4-H Guernsey Show and Assistant Superintendent of the Open Guernsey Show for many years. An ardent believer in good marketing he was an officer of the Greene County Milk Producers Association and served on the Greene County Extension Council. George was particularly effective in getting Springfield business men to aid the dairy industry in Greene County.

George, his wife Zelma, and son Ivan and family, received national recognition when they were chosen for the Skelly Agricultural Achievement Award in 1953-54. George and Zelma had one son, Ivan, who carried on the Guernsey herd for many years and still operates the farm. Ivan’s sons Dennis and Keith Allan grew up in 4-H Club work marking the fifth generation of Schmitts in the dairy business in Greene County. Dennis is now a practicing veterinarian in Springfield. Zelma died in 1968, and in 1969 George married Wilma White who survives.