Moe grew up on a mixed farm in Grey County in Ontario. He was active in 4H, Junior Farmers and sports. He was a very good fast ball pitcher and went to Ontario finals more than once. After high school he attended the Ontario Agricultural College (now University of Guelph) where he was very involved including being on the College Livestock Judging Team.
Upon graduating in the mid 1950’s, he work for ShurGain/Canada Packers, I think in the Lindsay area. In 1958, he joined the Ontario Department of Agriculture as Assistant Agricultural Representative and was assigned to Wentworth County (my home county). There he shone as the leader-coordinator of the 4H program. This is where I first met Moe. He made sure that each and every 4H agricultural member developed to their full potential. I can well remember going to Oswego County, New York with Moe on a 4H exchange trip where my eyes were opened to life in another country.
Before I go further I should mention Ruth his very caring wife and their three sons, all of whom have had successful business careers. Moe did not often mention his family but if asked he shared freeing on where each was and what ventures the boys were undertaking. They were like Moe in trying new things. The apple does not fall far from the tree.
Moe left the Department of Ag to join the Hamilton & District Cattle Breeders Association (A.I.) in the early 1960’s. He had arrived in the field he loved – cattle breeding. He initiated many programs including sire proving. The program he designed and implemented was very innovative for its time. In addition to improving the genetics he also turned the organization around and made it profitable.
During his time at HDCBA, Moe decided he wanted to contribute to areas beyond HDCBA and so he enrolled in a PhD program at Cornell (New York) studying both statistics and animal breeding. He graduated from Cornell, in 1970 and joined the University of Guelph as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal Science.
At UoGuelph was where our paths linked up again. He served on my Master’s graduate committee along with Ted Burnside, Jim Wilton and Gord King. Moe was a tremendous help to me as I was working in a novel area of computer simulation of an AI cattle breeding population. Yes my work was right down Moe’s area of focus.
After perhaps three years at UoGuelph, Moe left academia and joined the Ontario Animal Breeders (latter to be called Semex). He was just the spark that that organization needed. Roy Snyder had worked tirelessly to sell around the world. Now Moe would add the science of cattle breeding, the support of research, the partnering with organizations in other countries, closer cooperation amongst the Semex partners, more collaboration with breeds, milk recording, genetic evaluations (government and UoGuelph),…and the list goes on,..and on…and on.
Moe was a people person. He could see the potential in youth. He knew that a team needed players with a variety of skill sets. He could find support (aka government dollars) so there could be education, research, program development, market development,…. His vision and energy were limitless. He worked closely with Ted Burnside when CGIL was established and made it possible to bring in outside experts to grow and develop CGIL to be the global leader it became. The staff at Semex were qualified in many fields. Likely the best AI organization there was in the world. He could and would talk to everyone. He knew what made farmer-breeder’s tick and he could talk with both academic and government Ministers. He was a much sought after person for trade mission to other countries. One of the great things he did (in my opinion) was to establish the ILMS (International Livestock Management School) where many many many foreign people were Canadian trained on any aspect of livestock husbandry and improvement. The Canadian brand of genetics and genetic improvement set the bar high under Moe’s leadership.
Moe retired in 1994 from Semex spending his time in Guelph or at their cottage in the Rideau Lakes. And sad but true his health has not been good for some time now. It is true that many enhancements have been made to the Canadian dairy cattle improvement system since he retired but we must not forget that it was Moe that brought Dr Charlie Smith to Guelph to address MOET which was the first step to thinking about studying the DNA of animals which today we call genomic evaluations. It is just the way Moe would have wanted livestock improvement – always advancing, always more accurate and always making this world a better place for the farmer, their service organizations and the consumer.
Morris (Moe) Freeman a great man who made a very significant improvement in animal breeding, in the world.
(Written by Murray Hunt)
