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2015 President's Award for Economic Development

Patterson and WolfeDavid J. Patterson, Ph.D.

Professor of Animal Science
University of Missouri-Columbia

Dr. David J. Patterson joined the Division of Animal Sciences at MU in 1996 where, early in his academic career, he recognized an opportunity for Missouri beef producers to improve the quality of their herds through improving the herds’ replacement females. A focus of his research was to develop breeding systems that would expand use of artificial insemination to lead to improved herd genetics. Although artificial insemination is known to result in better genetics, only 10 percent of cows in the U.S. are artificially inseminated. Herd owners cite lack of time and labor as the biggest obstacles. Patterson developed methods to synchronize the reproductive cycles in cattle so that all of the heifers or cows in a herd could be artificially inseminated in one day.

As Patterson developed these methods in the 1990s, he ran experiments with the herd at the MU Thompson Research Center. Once the research was demonstrated to work effectively, Patterson developed the Show-Me-Select Replacement Heifer Program where he worked with regional extension livestock specialists, herd owners and their veterinarians across the state to transfer the technology to the field.

Since 1997, more than 116,000 heifers have been enrolled in the Show-Me-Select program from 776 farms across Missouri, and the program’s estimated contribution to Missouri’s economy has exceeded $100 million. In addition, Patterson has garnered more than $7.7 million in grants and contracts to support
his work at MU.

From his Show-Me-Select efforts grew Quality Beef By The Numbers, a program that improves profitability of beef cow-calf operations by facilitating the adoption of applied reproductive and genetic technologies that add value to beef cattle to meet increasing domestic and global demand for high-quality beef.

“Dr. Patterson’s integrity and sincere drive to find solutions to high priority problems is unparalleled. He leads the industry in reproduction and heifer development and his programs are being modeled throughout the United States,” wote one nominator.

Reviewed 2019-10-01