Dairy Industry Veteran, Dr. David P. Casper, Joins Grain States Soya/SoyBest as Technical Service Manager

Dr. David P. Casper has joined Grain States Soya/Soy Best in West Point, NE as Technical Service Manager on March 1, 2021.

Dr. Casper grew up on a dairy and livestock farm in Cuba City, WI.  He graduated from Cuba City High School in 1979 then attended the University of Wisconsin-Platteville graduating in 1983 with a BS in Animal Science and a minor in Chemistry. He received his Dairy Science M.S. degree in 1985 and Ph.D. in 1989 in Animal Science, specializing in Dairy Cattle Nutrition with a minor in biochemistry from South Dakota State University.

Dr. Casper continued to conduct dairy cattle nutrition research at SDSU prior to accepting a position at the United States Department of Agricultural-Agriculture Research Service from 1991 to 1994 as a Research Dairy Scientist conducting dairy cattle energy metabolism. In 1994, Dr. Casper joined Cargill, Inc. as a Dairy Innovation Development Manager prior to joining Agri-King, Inc. as a Dairy Nutritionist in 1997. In 2003 he was promoted to Director of Nutrition and in 2006 to Vice President of Nutrition. In 2011, Dr. Casper returned to academia at South Dakota State University as Assistant Professor of Dairy Science conducting research and teaching. He mentored more than 20 MS and Ph.D. graduate students while developing forage and nutrition programs for dairy cattle. In 2016 he joined Furst-McNess as Technical Services Manager and departed in 2019 to be a consulting nutritionist with Casper’s Calf Ranch, a contract research operation focusing on research of neonatal and growing calf nutrition.

Dr. Casper has published more than 90 scientific research articles, 135 scientific abstracts, 1 book chapter, and awarded 2 patents. He has received numerous awards including the prestigious Richard M. Hoyt Award for practical application of research in the dairy industry and the Pioneer Hi-Bred Forage Award awarded by the American Dairy Science Association. He has served as Midwest ADSA President, 2011 Overall Program Chair, American Society of Animal Science Foundation Chair, and American Society of Animal Science Executive Board Member.

He is a member of the American Dairy Science Association, American Society of Animal Science, European Federation of Animal Science, Canadian Society of Animal Science, and American Registry of Professional Animal Scientist.

Dr. Casper has traveled to several countries as a Consulting Nutritionist, including England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Canada, and China. Dr. Casper lives with his wife Janet in Freeport, IL.