Jay Mattison Honored as Dairy Shrine Guest of Honor

(Above: Watch the video from the Dairy Shrine presentation)

On Thursday September 30, Jay Mattison, CEO of National DHIA was awarded Dairy Shrine 2020 Guest of Honor.

Mattison grew up on the home dairy farm not far from World Dairy Expo where the banquet took place. Jay began his career as director of genetic programs for the National Association of Animal Breeders. While there he implemented the categorical analysis of calving ease genetic evaluations with Iowa State. He also implemented a cross reference program using NAAB codes as sire identification in the DHI system and for genetic groups of the USDA AI sire summaries. He also established the NAAB Active AI Sire List combining production and type information for quick delivery.

Jay continued in AI as genetic program manager at Eastern AI Cooperative and Federated Genetics, joining the Cornell University program on dairy markets and policy. He led a benchmarking study of beverage milk packaging costs along with Texas A & M and managed the digitizing of USDA records for NASS, ERS and the Census of Agriculture dairy data for access by researchers.

Jay Mattison is truly an internet pioneer for dairy. He was president of the Agricultural Databases for Decision Support (ADDS) which led to the USDA E-Extension program. He advised all the industry publications and with major AI organizations on internet usage. He developed and managed the first website presence for the International Dairy Federation. He was the technical conduit and managed content for Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Cheesemakers Association. He designed and was lead implementer of desktop and network computing at NAAB, Eastern AI – Federated, World Wide Sires and

Applied Resource and Managerial Economics (ARME) at Cornell. And, he also created the first website for Dairy Shrine and several other non-profits.

International leadership has been a continuing aspect of Jay’s career, starting in his student days when he was a member of the first Iowa State undergraduate group to go to The Peoples Republic of China. He led six trade missions to Europe for Wisconsin state government and dairy organizations, and he’s made presentations for U.S. dairy in over 30 countries. Since 2006 he has been a board member and is the immediate past president of the International Committee on Animal Recording (ICAR).

Dairy Shrine, along with all of the industry and DairyBusiness News congratulates Jay Mattison as the Dairy Shrine 2020 Guest of Honor and congratulate his wife Mary and their two children, Lars and Kari.

DairyBusiness News Congratulates Jay Mattison!