diff --git a/packages/grafana-data/src/dataframe/MutableDataFrame.ts b/packages/grafana-data/src/dataframe/MutableDataFrame.ts
index a76873b64dc..2597aa17d8f 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-data/src/dataframe/MutableDataFrame.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-data/src/dataframe/MutableDataFrame.ts
@@ -155,6 +155,27 @@ export class MutableDataFrame<T = any> extends FunctionalVector<T> implements Da
     }
   }
 
+  private parsers: Map<Field, (v: string) => any> | undefined = undefined;
+
+  /**
+   * @deprecated unclear if this is actually used
+   */
+  setParser(field: Field, parser: (v: string) => any) {
+    if (!this.parsers) {
+      this.parsers = new Map<Field, (v: string) => any>();
+    }
+    this.parsers.set(field, parser);
+    return parser;
+  }
+
+  private parseValue(field: Field, v: any): any {
+    let p = this.parsers?.get(field);
+    if (!p) {
+      p = this.setParser(field, makeFieldParser(v, field));
+    }
+    return p(v);
+  }
+
   /**
    * This will add each value to the corresponding column
    */
@@ -181,10 +202,7 @@ export class MutableDataFrame<T = any> extends FunctionalVector<T> implements Da
       const f = this.fields[i];
       let v = row[i];
       if (f.type !== FieldType.string && isString(v)) {
-        if (!f.parse) {
-          f.parse = makeFieldParser(v, f);
-        }
-        v = f.parse(v);
+        v = this.parseValue(f, v);
       }
       f.values.add(v);
     }
@@ -200,10 +218,7 @@ export class MutableDataFrame<T = any> extends FunctionalVector<T> implements Da
       let val = obj[field.name];
 
       if (field.type !== FieldType.string && isString(val)) {
-        if (!field.parse) {
-          field.parse = makeFieldParser(val, field);
-        }
-        val = field.parse(val);
+        val = this.parseValue(field, val);
       }
 
       if (val === undefined) {
diff --git a/packages/grafana-data/src/types/dataFrame.ts b/packages/grafana-data/src/types/dataFrame.ts
index b07a439fdd0..bb4e9784e34 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-data/src/types/dataFrame.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-data/src/types/dataFrame.ts
@@ -122,11 +122,6 @@ export interface Field<T = any, V = Vector<T>> {
    */
   state?: FieldState | null;
 
-  /**
-   * Convert text to the field value
-   */
-  parse?: (value: any) => T;
-
   /**
    * Convert a value for display
    */
diff --git a/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/Table/utils.test.ts b/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/Table/utils.test.ts
index f710638701c..bb2ff5b70d9 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/Table/utils.test.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/Table/utils.test.ts
@@ -186,7 +186,6 @@ describe('Table utils', () => {
             title: '1.0',
             text: '1.0',
           }),
-          parse: (value: any) => '1.0',
         };
         const rows: any[] = [];
 
diff --git a/public/app/core/components/TransformersUI/spatial/spatialTransformer.ts b/public/app/core/components/TransformersUI/spatial/spatialTransformer.ts
index b8f652e77f5..d131657d8fc 100644
--- a/public/app/core/components/TransformersUI/spatial/spatialTransformer.ts
+++ b/public/app/core/components/TransformersUI/spatial/spatialTransformer.ts
@@ -53,7 +53,6 @@ async function doSetGeometry(frames: DataFrame[], options: SpatialTransformOptio
                 {
                   ...info.field,
                   name,
-                  parse: undefined,
                   type: FieldType.geo,
                   values: new ArrayVector([toLineString(info.field)]),
                 },
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/elastic_response.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/elastic_response.ts
index 826878738bb..bb857a7e971 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/elastic_response.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/elasticsearch/elastic_response.ts
@@ -711,21 +711,23 @@ const createEmptyDataFrame = (
   }
 
   if (logMessageField) {
-    series.addField({
+    const f = series.addField({
       name: logMessageField,
       type: FieldType.string,
-    }).parse = (v: any) => {
+    });
+    series.setParser(f, (v: any) => {
       return v || '';
-    };
+    });
   }
 
   if (logLevelField) {
-    series.addField({
+    const f = series.addField({
       name: 'level',
       type: FieldType.string,
-    }).parse = (v: any) => {
+    });
+    series.setParser(f, (v: any) => {
       return v || '';
-    };
+    });
   }
 
   const fieldNames = series.fields.map((field) => field.name);
@@ -740,15 +742,16 @@ const createEmptyDataFrame = (
       continue;
     }
 
-    series.addField({
+    const f = series.addField({
       config: {
         filterable: true,
       },
       name,
       type,
-    }).parse = (v: any) => {
+    });
+    series.setParser(f, (v: any) => {
       return v || '';
-    };
+    });
   }
 
   return series;