Four individuals are being honored with the National Dairy Shrine’s Pioneer Award in recognition of their significant contributions to the dairy industry. The group will join past industry leaders whose portraits and stories are displayed in the National Dairy Shrine’s Dairy Hall of Fame and Museum in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin.
Bonnie Ayars is a dairy-cattle breeder, teacher, coach and agriculture advocate from Mechanicsburg, Ohio. She and her husband developed one of the nation’s finest Guernsey herds with the Land of Living prefix. They later added the partnership of New View Swiss with more prize-winning cows. More than 20 national show champions, numerous All-Americans, bulls in artificial insemination, and leading production animals were bred and developed by the couple and their sons.
Ayars has been a teacher for 48 years. She accepted in 2006 a position at The Ohio State University as a dairy-program specialist working with 4-H dairy programming. She coached collegiate and 4-H judging teams, and taught in the animal sciences department. She eventually transitioned to only the collegiate portion of her appointment but continues to work with 4-H dairy programs. Her judging teams have won many contests, such as the National Intercollegiate Contest at the 2019 World Dairy Expo.
The Ayars’ family in 2010 began using their farm’s milk to make ice cream. The family continues to operate an ice cream and cheese business, along with an on-farm activity center. Within these ventures, Bonnie Ayars has educated the public about agriculture and the grit it takes to sustain a family farm.
Dieter Krieg is the founder, publisher and editor of “Farmshine,” based in Brownstown, Pennsylvania. He established the publication in 1979. It was the first dairy-focused weekly newspaper in the nation. He continues to serve as editor, feature writer, layout designer and publisher.
Krieg is currently a member of the National Holstein Foundation Board of Trustees and the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture. He previously served on the National Dairy Shrine Board, the Pennsylvania State Ag Alumni Council, and the All-American Dairy Show Improvement Committee.
Ric Grummer of Fitchburg, Wisconsin, is an emeritus professor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Dairy Science. The respected dairy-cattle nutrition researcher, educator and consultant whose lifetime of work in transition-cow nutrition and management has benefited dairy farmers worldwide.
Grummer joined UW-Madison as an assistant professor in 1984. During his 26-year career at the university, he progressed to the rank of professor and served as department chair from 2004-2010.
His early research focused on the effects of bypass fats, oilseeds and tallow on rumen fermentation and lactation performance that led to practical recommendations for dairy producers to optimize milk-fat production. His most impactful research focused on transition-cow nutrition. The prevention of fatty liver and ketosis, and the negative consequences of those disorders, were of particular interest to Grummer. His laboratory demonstrated that supplemental choline, when fed in a protected form, was effective in preventing and alleviating fatty liver and could increase postpartum feed intake and milk production.
Grummer was appointed to the National Research Council’s Subcommittee on Dairy Cattle Nutrition that wrote the 2001 revision of the “Nutrient Requirements of Dairy Cattle.” His studies on behalf of the committee also led to equations for predicting dry-matter intake of transition cows, estimates which became benchmarks for use on commercial dairies.
As chair of UW-Madison’s Dairy Science Department for six years he directed efforts such as the building of a new dairy-research facility at Arlington. After retiring from the university in 2010, he became ruminant technical director, and later a consultant for Balchem Corporation.
The work of Darrell Pidgeon of Parker, Colorado, helped open and develop export markets for U.S. Holstein cattle around the world. He became herd manager-partner at Paclamar Farms in Colorado in 1970. Together with Dick Brooks, the two men developed one of the top Holstein show herds with Kanza Matt Tippy and Green Banks Admiral Mooie among their most famous show cows.
While managing the Paclamar herd Pidgeon was introduced to the export business. The Paclamar herd was sold to an Italian businessman in 1973. Pidgeon flew with the cattle to Rome and spent several weeks in Italy helping the cattle acclimate. Later that year he joined David Bachmann of Wisconsin, working with his cattle export/sales business and Pinehurst Farms Holstein herd. While ther, Pidgeon coordinated the export of thousands of Holsteins to Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Romania.
Pidgeon took on a new challenge in 1977, overseeing the selection, purchase and export of 24,000 Holstein bred heifers to Mexico for the Inter-American Development Bank’s “Prodel” project. The project offered Mexican dairy farmers the opportunity to have their own small herd of cows within the modern Prodel dairy facility. They then shipped their milk to a cooperatively owned processing plant.
Upon completion of the Prodel project in 1980, Darrell and his wife, Ann Pidgeon, returned to Colorado. They established in 1981 their own private-export entity, Pidgeon Cattle Company. In the next 20 years they built a strong Asian export market, working with Holstein buyers in Japan, China and Korea.
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