Dr. Gordon Doak, CEO of the National Association of Animal Breeders is recognized with the National Dairy Shrine’s most prestigious Guest of Honor award. This award, presented annually, recognizes a contemporary dairy leader for outstanding accomplishments and contributions to the dairy industry. Gordon Doak, who has spent more than 30 years working to improve the genetics of farm animals through artificial insemination, grew up on a dairy farm near Osborn, Missouri. In 1965 he enrolled at the University of Missouri where he went on to earn Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD degrees in Animal Science. Upon graduation, his career activities have had a tremendous impact on the promotion of U.S. genetics and marketing of germplasm worldwide through the auspices of the National Association of Animal Breeders and Certified Semen services, Inc. During his tenure, he has also been a strong proponent of advancing science, technology and innovation in the AI and allied industries.
As President and CEO of the National Association of Animal Breeders, and its subsidiary, Certified Semen Services, Inc., Gordan has been instrumental in the development and administration of numerous policies and programs for the AI industry that have benefitted livestock improvement in dairy and beef cattle in areas of identification, sire and semen health, semen quality, genetic evaluation, marketing and promotion.
Over the years, Doak has travelled to more than 20 countries to negotiate health and genetic requirements and work to reduce non-tariff trade barriers. He has worked closely with Congress and the USDA Agriculture Research Service to ensure funding for the Animal Improvements Programs Laboratory and collaborated with other industry organizations to form the Cooperative Dairy DNA Repository (CDDR) to improve the accuracy and reliability of genomic evaluations.
Through the years, Doak has served as Chairman of the Board of U.S. Livestock Genetics Export, Inc. on three different occasions, been involved with the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) since its beginning in 1988, and has had a significant role in guiding the CDCB through negotiations of the Non Funded Cooperative Agreement with ARS-USDA, which led to the successful transition of the US genomic evaluations.
Doak has also worked diligently to educate people about the importance of genetics and genomics, going on to co-author “The Artificial Insemination and Embryo Transfer of Dairy and Beef Cattle-9th edition, a handbook and laboratory manual for students, herd operators and persons involved in genetic development.
Doak will receive the 2018 Guest of Honor Recognition at the annual National Dairy Shrine Awards Banquet on Thursday, October 4th in Madison, Wisconsin. For more information about the banquet or about students, producers and dairy industry individuals being recognized by the National Dairy Shrine, please contact National Dairy Shrine at [email protected]
Information on the National Dairy Shrine membership is also available online at Dairy Shrine.