What education are you bringing with you to this position?
I am a 2013 graduate of the University of Guelph’s Ontario Agricultural College with a degree in agricultural science.

Please describe your agricultural background.
I grew up on a dairy farm, Knapview Farms, in eastern Ontario. I did take the chance to actively participate in 4-H and as many industry events as I could get to.

What territory will you cover?
I will be starting off in Ontario, but I’m looking forward to covering a lot of Canada.

What are your new responsibilities?
Along with other members of the classification team, I will be working with breeders on-farm to assess the conformation of their dairy cattle. This will be a great source of data collection for genetic bases, as well as help with on-farm genetic improvement from one generation to the next.

What previous positions have you held?
I am lucky to have held a pretty wide collection of positions when you consider my summer employment. I worked with Sullivan Agro as an agronomy assistant for a few summers before working with BASF as a sales summer student for a summer. Upon graduation, I worked as a ruminant farm consultant with Agribrands Purina before taking on this new opportunity with Holstein Canada.

Who has made the biggest impact on your career?
Tough to pick (which is a great problem to have), but I would say my parents, Deb and Merlin. They have such a passion for the industry and work incredibly hard to reach their goals – that makes them ideal role models. Plus they are excellent sounding boards for all my ideas and supportive of all my decisions.

How will you be of most help to producers in your region or area of expertise?
I hope my diverse background will help me work with producers to fully understand the benefits to them of improved herd genetics.

Why did you choose this company?
Holstein Canada has always seemed like a progressive leader in the dairy industry – I love their involvement in everything from the various dairy breeds to supporting dairy breeders as well as the industry as a whole.

What goals would you like to accomplish while in this position?
I am hoping to continually improve my knowledge of the heritability of various genetic traits, classification and all of Holstein Canada’s service, as well as work with producers all across the country.  PD