Dairy-Beef Quality Assurance Workshop Presenters and Panelists

Presenters and Panelists:
Dr. Chad Carr serves as Extension Meat Specialist at the University of Florida within the Department of Animal Sciences. His responsibilities include serving as coordinator for HACCP training to food processors within the in the state, providing educational programs in meat and livestock evaluation to youth, facilitating the needs of Florida’s niche meat marketers, and providing meat safety and quality training to Florida’s extensive food service industry.

David Bray is a native of New York and a Deleware Valley College graduate. He serves as an Extension Specialist to Florida’s dairy industry. His extension program provides materials related to mastitis prevention, milking management, milking machine operation and maintenance and climate modification of heat stress in dairy cows.

Dr. Albert De Vries serves as Dairy Extension and Management Specialist where his research interests are in quantitative dairy systems management, including optimization of cow culling and replacement strategies under herd constraints, economics of reproductive strategies, productive life, animal health economics, statistical process control, and business analysis.

Dr. Todd Thrift was educated at the University of Kentucky, Oklahoma State University, and Texas A&M University and currently serves at Extension Beef Specialist at the University of Florida within the Department of Animal Sciences. He is primarily responsible for pragmatic efforts in the National Animal Identification Program and the Florida Beef Quality Assurance Program.

Dr. Dwain Johnson grew up in Abilene, Texas on a diversified farming operation and was educated at Texas A&M University and Oklahoma State University. In 1984, he joined the faculty at the University of Florida, where he currently is a Professor of Meat Science. The research program he and his students are involved in focuses on antemortem and postmortem factors influencing animal composition and meat palatability. Dr. Johnson is also currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Florida Beef Council.

Dr. Matt Hersom provides leadership for the University of Florida beef cattle extension program, including, ruminant nutrition, cow-calf production, and forage utilization. His areas of emphasis include: supplementation, grazing, and nutrition-reproduction interaction. Additionally, he works in a leadership role with for the Florida Beef Quality Assurance program.
  
Dr. Owen Rae grew up in Wyoming with a keen interest in beef cattle and livestock. He received a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science from Brigham Young University (1978) and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Colorado State University (1982). Since 1988, Dr. Rae has been an Assistant and later an Associate Professor in the Large Animal Clinical Sciences Department, within the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Florida.

Dr. José Eduardo P. Santos joined the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Florida in January of 2008 as Associate Professor and Extension Dairy Specialist. His responsibilities include research and extension in dairy cattle nutrition and reproduction. Previously, he spent 8 years as a faculty member in the Department of Population and Health & Reproduction in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California Davis.

Don Bennink serves as Managing Partner of North Florida Holsteins, a 6,400 cow dairy in Bell, Florida.

Randal Garrett has worked in numerous capacities in the animal protein industry internationally and currently serves at Chief Operating Officer for FPL Food, LLC, a non-fed beef and ground beef processing facility in Augusta, Georgia.

Matt Peterson has a large animal veterinary practice, focusing primarily on dairy cattle, in Lafayette County, Florida.

Brian McAdams is Owner and Operator of McAdams Dairy Farm, Inc. in Mayo, Florida.

Woody Larson and his wife Grace operate Family Tree Enterprises consisting of three dairy farms, two in Okeechobee and one in Mayo, Florida.

Dale Eade, and his wife Cindy own and operate Cindale Farms near Marianna, Florida. Dale is a Vice-President of Southeast Milk Cooperative.

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Department of Animal Sciences