Like countless farming families from this area over the years, the Besancons cherish their time together each year at the Wayne County Fair.
There are long hours and hard work spent to put on the best possible showings of their dairy cows.
No matter where the Wil-San Registered Holsteins Farm heifers owned by the Besancons have placed over the years, the family has enjoyed memorable moments at the fair for many generations.
However, the good times are rolling more than ever for Wil-San owners Bill and Sandy Besancon and their extended family, thanks in large part to their prized 5-year-old Holstein named Daredevil.
Granddaughter Audrey Sidle, in her last year showing in the junior fair, led Daredevil around the arena to first place for grand champion junior fair Holstein cows on Sept. 9.
Earlier this year Daredevil was named the Ohio State Fair junior fair reserve grand champion Holstein female.
The family was hoping for a three-peat for Daredevil as Wayne County Fair open grand champion later in the week (judged after this week’s Bargain Hunter press deadline).
Bill and Sandy Besancon own the Wil-San Farm, and their four children — Brett, Beth Matty, Doug and Greg — are all highly involved in its operation, along with their immediate families.
“It's a total team effort with the whole family,” Bill Besancon said. “We have never had this much success — to have a shot at a (grand champion open) three-peat. (The late) Jeff Rupp and his family had quite a few (grand champions). Jeff was somebody I always looked up to, so it's a humbling experience for us to do this well.”
Whether it’s the family gathered at the stalls to literally pitch in any way possible or rooting on Sidle in the show arena, the passion for doing the best job possible with their Holsteins was as clear as the beautiful blue skies at the 176th Wayne County Fair.
There were grandparents, moms and dads, high-schoolers, and even grade-schoolers learning the ropes, all working together.
The 2025 fair is a rite of passage for Sidle, a Smithville graduate who now attends Ohio University, because it will be her last junior fair.
“We all have different roles, but collectively, it's a joint effort,” said Beth, Sidle's mom. “I’m about to cry thinking about this being Audrey’s last junior fair. This is super-special.”
Wil-San Registered Holsteins is located off of Back Orrville Road in the Green Local School District. Many family members have excelled in athletics at Smithville.
“We’ve worked hard to build the genetics, and we take a lot of pride because (Daredevil) is one of our own born and bred heifers,” Beth said. “We've all worked really hard collectively to get her where she's at today.”
Brett Besancon said he’s “The Cow Man.”
“I pretty much take care of the cows, the health of the cows, and I help with crops,” he said.
Doug Besancon is a large animal vet tech at the Orrville Vet Clinic and is primarily responsible for the herd's health.
Greg Besancon handles the feeding, crop work and is the mechanic.
Despite working a full-time job away from the farm, Beth is on-site often to help with milking and showings.
Bill Besancon operates the choppers and does the planting.
Sandy Besancon has been a registered nurse for 32 years and handles the bookkeeping and registrations for the animals.
The Besancons say they’ve come a long way in their breeding, which has played a huge part in winning a steady number of first-place finishes in recent years.
“We breed artificially,” Brett Besancon said. “Tyler Topp and my brother Doug do all the breeding and mating. We do a lot of embryo transferring and in vitro fertilization on some of these better cows, and that's why our genetics have improved.”
Wil-San Farms, which supplies milk to Daisy, also shows cows in several other categories.
The female Holsteins is the big category, though, with Daredevil weighing in around 1,800 pounds. She is able to produce up to 140 pounds of milk per day.
The Besancons brought an all-time high of 14 cows to the fair, but with her massive size, Daredevil is the main attraction.
“She's probably the biggest cow here,” Audrey Sidle said after skillfully leading the heifer through a showing. “I think she just catches your eye from the moment she walks in with her frame. That's probably the biggest thing that you'll notice about her.
“It feels really nice (to win the junior fair). I'm really proud of our home-bred cow. Hopefully, we can win the open, too, and I'm excited to get into showing the other breeds.”
Sidle, a former Smithville hoopster like many from the family, has been showing animals at the fair since she was 12. In her final junior fair, her longtime friend Carissa Pittman from Wooster had the second-place finish.
“It’s always gone back and forth between us (at shows) the last four or five years,” said Sidle, whose brother Brady, a sophomore football, basketball and baseball player at Smithville, also helps with the cows.
Bill Besancon loves basketball about as much as breeding Holsteins. He pointed at some 2-year-old cows in a nearby pen and some of his youngest grandchildren standing near it.
“That’s the future,” he said.
“Kind of like the parks and rec program for basketball?” a reporter quipped back.
“Yes,” he said. “You’re getting it. You don't do it overnight. It takes years to build a program in any sport, and it takes years to breed down the road, especially to get to the level of winning two or three grand championships. I'm a Wayne County Athletic League guy, and competing at the Wayne County Fair is a lot like competing for a (WCAL) championship. It’s very competitive but lots of fun.”
