You won’t find any Herefords or Holsteins anymore at Jarvis Hereford Farms but you will find Paul Reicheld and his wife Nicole hard at work running one of the area’s most successful fourth-generation farms.
Jarvis Hereford Farms was started in the 1940s when Paul’s great-grandfather, Fred, imported Herefords from England.
Those heifers and bulls were shown regularly at The Royal Winter Fall and returned home as Grand Champions many times. Paul still has a barn full of ribbons to prove it.
In the 1970s, Paul’s grandfather, Glenn Reicheld, expanded the breeding stock when he purchased three Simmentals from France and one from Germany.
Those red and black cattle have kept their purebred status today.
Paul’s father, Fred Reicheld, was inducted into the Canadian Simmental Hall of Fame in 2017 in recognition of his influence and achievements in the cattle industry. He was a long-time member of the Jarvis Lions Club, the Ontario Simmental Association and the Ontario Farmers’ Association. Unfortunately, Fred passed away in March 2021.
With Fred’s retirement and passing, Paul has made a few changes. Gone is the small dairy herd of Holsteins and employees. The Herefords were entirely replaced by the Simmentals years ago but Paul saw no need to change the name of the business so the papers and sign remain the same
Today, Paul and his mother Sally raise between 90 and 95 purebred Simmentals and still show them at the Royal Winter Fair.
Paul is a breeder. Most of his heifers and calves are sold privately to other farms to be raised for the beef market when fully grown.
He also grows about a 175 acres of soybeans which he sells on the market, 40 acres of corn, 25 acres of wheat and nearly 150 acres of hay which he uses for feed. Paul says he appreciates the help gets from neighbours with the planting.
Paul is an active member of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and the Canadian Simmental Association. He graduated from the University of Guelph with a degree in Commerce in 2006. In his spare time, he enjoys golf and baseball. Paul and Nicole have a daughter named Layne and they live in the original farm house once owned by his great-grandfather that started the business 80 years ago.