Dan Schaefer retired from the Department of Animal Sciences on December 30, 2019. He started his career on June 20, 1979, as an Assistant Professor of Animal Sciences at Purdue University. He returned to the Department of Meat & Animal Science in 1981. (The department name became Animal Sciences in 1996 and will be Animal & Dairy Sciences in 2020.) He taught, with Ed Hauser and then Brian Kirkpatrick, beef cattle production to undergraduates and Farm & Industry Short Course students, and rumen microbiology to graduate students his entire career. Dan chaired Animal Sciences from 1999 to 2016, with the exception of 16 months as CALS Interim Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs. He chaired the design and construction committee that resulted in the opening of the Livestock Laboratory in 1993, and then had the pleasure of working with the Meat Science Advisory Council and faculty and staff colleagues to secure approval for the design of the Meat Science & Animal Biologics Discovery building. Dan said, “In my last two years as program director, I have had the pleasure of helping to bring vision, staff and organization to the program for the new building. This building and program hold significant potential for students, researchers, and client companies. I look forward to observing the ascendance and maturation of this program. Meat science will exist on this campus into the future because of the partnership between donors, legislators, campus leaders, and visionaries who have been attracted to the future impact of this building and program. The meat industry is important to Wisconsin and the nation, and this program will be a centerpiece at both levels. I am so pleased to have had a hand in securing the future which program founder, Bob Bray, sought for this program on this campus.”

Best wishes, Dan!

Read ‘Beef guy’ retires after 40 years, as seen in the Feb. 28 issue of Agri-View.