A weeklong crossbreeding chat with Dr. Les Hansen
Holstein World: Briefly describe for our readers your background and involvement in the dairy industry - more specifically, the dairy genetics sector. What experiences and achievements have brought you to your current position?
Dr. Les Hansen: Most of my life has revolved around Registered Holsteins. I grew up on a Registered Holstein farm in southern Minnesota. When I was extremely young, my parents purchased herd sires from Carnation Farms in the state of Washington. Those young bulls came by rail to Minnesota. When A.I. started, my parents were charter members of the Southern Minnesota Breeders Federation, which through successive mergers is now Genex/CRI. I grew up showing Registered Holsteins and competed successfully in youth dairy cattle judging. I individually mated every cow in our herd during my teens and twenties.
I majored in Animal Science at the University of Minnesota and, after graduation in 1973, took a position as Director of Information and Public Relations for Midwest Breeders Cooperative, Shawano, WI (another predecessor to Genex/CRI ) – a heady position for someone right out of college! I was fortunate, in that position, to meet so many leaders of the dairy industry. However, I yearned for more direct involvement in Holstein genetics. Therefore, I returned to college for the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Animal Breeding – the M.S. at the University of Minnesota and the Ph.D. at Iowa State University. At Iowa State, Dr. Gene Freeman was my major professor, and he was #1 in the world among dairy cattle geneticists at that time. Also, I spent a lot of time at Iowa State with Dr. Fred Foreman, one of my key mentors in life, who was Professor in Charge of the undergraduate dairy science program. As a graduate student at both Minnesota and Iowa State, I served as Assistant Coach of the dairy cattle judging teams.
The University of Minnesota was looking for a professor to coach the dairy cattle judging team and to work with the undergraduate dairy science program about a year before I was due to finish the Ph.D. degree in 1981. I was hired for a 50% teaching and 50% research position, which is my appointment to this day. Therefore, dairy cattle judging and coaching experience were the reasons I was hired by the University of Minnesota. Of course, I continue to coach the dairy cattle judging team for the University of Minnesota. We are on a great roll right now – our teams have been among the top 4 at the national intercollegiate contest for 6 years in a row – only the University of Minnesota and one other university can make that claim! This year’s team was 2nd overall, 1st in Holsteins, top 5 in all 7 breeds; furthermore, team member Luke Olson was high individual in the contest, 1st in Holsteins, and 1st in Jerseys.
Consequently, no one can claim that I am an “ivory tower” geneticist, who is out of touch with the Registered Holstein industry. I can talk Holstein pedigrees and the history of Registered Holsteins until the cows come home!
Holstein World: Why the decision to focus your research on the principles of crossbreeding? How many years have you been researching this subject?
Dr. Les Hansen: Research on crossbreeding is a recent development. Most of my research over the years has been on the health and fitness traits of Holsteins, as well as monitoring the increase of inbreeding in Holsteins. I was blessed with outstanding graduate students over the years, and they all focused their research on pure Holsteins or pure Jerseys until recently.
I realize I am a controversial figure at this time to some in Registered Holstein circles. Often those who are critical don’t know me personally or have not heard me speak. Typically, Registered Holstein breeders tell me they agree with my message. That seemed to be the general reaction when I spoke to the Board of Directors of the Holstein Association USA at their quarterly board meeting last November.
Crossbreeding hinges on purebreds. Registered Holsteins will be a huge input to almost all crossbreeding systems internationally. I adamantly urge anyone breeding Registered Holsteins to stick with their Registered Holsteins. However, it would be good for breeders of Registered Holsteins to gear their sire selection more toward the cow demanded by commercial dairy producers rather than the sires who transmit large size and sharpness – the sort of cows that usually place high at shows. Commercial producers don’t what anything to do with that sort of cow.
Some critics suggest the tremendous global interest in crossbreeding at this time is entirely my fault. Nothing could be further from the truth! All of us in dairy genetics research were very slow to react to the tremendous interest of commercial dairy producers in crossbreeding.
On the other hand, I realize I have little fear of controversy. I announced we were planning to implement a crossbreeding study at the University of Minnesota at the annual gathering of dairy cattle researchers in the U.S. A researcher at another university told me, “Les, you are going to get yourself into all sorts of trouble!” My response was university tenure protects those of us who study things that might not be popular with everyone. The following year, that researcher from other university initiated a crossbreeding study, too. Many university researchers around the world now have studies underway comparing crossbred and purebred dairy cattle.
Crossbreeding easily is the #1 topic in dairy cattle genetics at this time internationally. Commercial dairy producers demand answers on its potential to improve health and fertility of cows, as well as profitability of dairy operations, and researchers must get answers to those questions.