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On behalf of its industry partners, the Board of Directors of Canadian Dairy Network (CDN) is pleased to announce its selection of Dr. Réjean Bouchard of Ottawa as the 2016 recipient of the Dairy Cattle Improvement Industry Distinction Award.
This award aims to recognize his numerous contributions to the Canadian dairy cattle sector during the course of his lengthy career spanning 44 years.
Réjean Bouchard received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Université Laval, Québec, and his Ph.D. degree specializing in dairy cattle nutrition from Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, United States. He then spent the next 24 years, from 1971 to 1995, involved in dairy cattle research while employed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. From 1996 to 2015, Dr. Bouchard was employed by Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) as a dairy cattle specialist and lobbyist mainly in the position as Assistant Director, Policy and Dairy Production. Since his retirement from DFC in early 2015, he has continued his interest in the dairy cattle and agricultural sectors as Senior Consultant at RBInt in Ottawa.
CDN Board Chairman, Gary Bowers, applauded the selection decision stating, “Réjean Bouchard was very well known and appreciated throughout the dairy cattle industry in Canada and respected internationally. Key attributes contributing to being selected as the 2016 recipient of this major industry recognition include his vision and leadership in terms of dairy cattle research, combined with his technical capacity to develop programs to address important national issues such as food safety, animal welfare, biosecurity and traceability.”
To highlight some of his many successes during Dr. Bouchard’s tenure at DFC, his leadership led to the creation of DFC’s national dairy production research program in 1996, which ultimately resulted in a co-ordinated effort and collaborative network of scientists from universities and government institutions across Canada. On behalf of DFC, he acted as liaison with CDN’s research committee, the DairyGen Council, which has funded many genetics-based projects of high industry priority. Dr. Bouchard also played a pivotal role in establishing two federally funded geneticist research positions at CDN that were maintained for more than 10 years, which contributed to the implementation of various genetic evaluation services at the national and international levels. In addition, he was actively involved outside of Canada with the International Dairy Federation (IDF), the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the International Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
Canadian Dairy Network is the national genetic evaluation centre for dairy cattle and provides services to Canadian dairy producers and member organizations including breed associations, DHI agencies, A.I. organizations and Dairy Farmers of Canada. The award will be presented to Dr. Réjean Bouchard during the 2016 Dairy Cattle Improvement Industry Forum on September 21st in Ottawa, ON, in advance of the 21st Annual General Meeting of CDN the next day.
