AFIA Honors Three for Achievements in Ruminant Animal Science

The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA), the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) and the Federation of Animal Science Societies (FASS) honored three feed industry veterans for their work in animal science and presented their awards during the annual ASAS meeting in New Orleans July 10 – 12.

The FASS-AFIA New Frontiers in Animal Nutrition award, which is similar to a life-time achievement award, was presented to George C. Fahey Jr., Ph.D., professor of Animal Sciences and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A committee of FASS members selected Fahey to receive the award.

This is the eighth consecutive year the American Feed Industry Association sponsored the FASS award. The honor was presented to Fahey by Clay Zimmerman, Ph.D. on behalf of AFIA. Dr. Zimmerman is the director of dairy nutrition of Kent Feeds, Muscatine, Iowa, and is the chair of AFIA’s Nutrition Committee.

The purpose of the New Frontiers in Animal Nutrition award is to stimulate, acknowledge and reward pioneering and innovative research relevant to the nutrition of animals that benefits mankind and the nutritional value of foods from animals. Among the qualities the award recipient must exhibit is an outstanding and innovative contribution to nutrition research concerning animals that benefits mankind and/or the nutritional value of food from animals.

Dr. Fahey has specialized in companion animal nutrition for UIUC since 1976. He has contributed to the areas of carbohydrate nutrition, with a special interest in the areas of dietary fiber, oligosaccharides, resistant starch and comparative nutrition in animal and human diets. Dr. Fahey’s research has helped the pet industry produce optimal animal food and feed.

Dr. Fahey has impressive list of credentials, including being named a Kraft Foods Human Nutrition Endowed Professor and the 2011 recipient of the General Mills Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition Innovation Award. Dr. Fahey is a member of the American Society for Nutrition and the Nutritional Sciences Council. He also holds the distinction of “University Scholar,” the highest recognition awarded to University of Illinois faculty and won the Highly Cited Researcher Award from the Institute for Scientific Information. Dr. Fahey received his bachelor’s in biology/chemistry, master’s in agricultural biochemistry and doctorate degree in animal nutrition from West Virginia University, Morgantown.

The Ruminant Animal Nutrition Award was presented to Goetsch Arthur L. Goetsch, Ph.D., an expert on ruminant animal nutrition and production, by Cathy Bandyk, Ph.D., of QLF-Quality Liquid Feeds, Dodgeville, WI. The award is sponsored by the American Feed Industry Association as part of its continuing awards program that dates back to 1948. Dr. Bandyk presented the award on behalf of AFIA.

Goetsch is the research leader of the E (Kika) de la Garza Institute for Goat Research of Langston University in Langston, OK.

Prior to his tenure at Langston which began in 1998, Dr. Goetsch was a research animal scientist with the Dale Bumpers Small Farms Research Center of the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Booneville, AR. He has also served as professor of ruminant nutrition at the University of Arkansas.

Dr. Goetsch received his bachelor’s in agricultural science at Illinois State University, his master’s in animal husbandry from the University of Missouri and his doctorate in animal nutrition from New Mexico State University.

In 1998, Dr. Goetsch was awarded the American Society of Animal Science Southern Section Outstanding Young Animal Scientist Award. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles.

The ASAS Nonruminant Nutrition Research Award was presented to Brian J. Kerr, Ph.D., a leading animal scientist for the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The award is sponsored by the American Feed Industry Association, as part of its continuing awards program that dates back to 1948. Randy Walker, Ph.D., DPI Global of Porterville, CA, presented the award to Stein on behalf of AFIA. Dr. Walker is a member and past chair of AFIA’s Nutrition Committee.