HENRY DOWLEN
RECOGNIZED WITH JERSEY AWARD
FOR
MERITORIOUS SERVICE
July 2, 2008, Reynoldsburg,
Ohio—Henry H. Dowlen, Lewisburg, Tenn., received the AJCA-NAJ Award
for Meritorious Service given by the American Jersey Cattle Association and
National All-Jersey Inc. on June 27, 2008, in ceremonies during the
organizations’ Annual Meetings in Asheville, N.C.
This award is bestowed annually upon a living individual
who, in the joint opinion of the Boards of Directors of the American Jersey
Cattle Association and National All-Jersey Inc., has made a notable contribution
to the advancement of the Jersey breed and livelihood of Jersey owners in the
United States through research, education, development, marketing, or other
significant activities of the allied dairy industry.
Henry Dowlen dedicated his entire professional career to managing
one of the largest and highest milk-producing Jersey herds in the world that
functions as a research herd, at the Dairy Research and Education Center
in Lewisburg, Tenn.
Dowlen earned his B. S. degree from the University of
Tennessee in 1967 and started a master’s program in 1968, only to be drafted
for two years military service in Vietnam. He completed the degree in 1972, then
accepted a position as Assistant Professor at the university assigned to the
Lewisburg dairy experiment station.
All work at Lewisburg, from the
center’s creation in 1929 through today, is directed towards improving the
profitability of the milk producing business. Thousands of studies have been
undertaken at Lewisburg on every facet of the industry, from the use of forages
in dairy rations, to dairy cattle breeding and genetics, to studies of
reproduction, mastitis and udder health, and also to water quality and dairy
waste.
Lewisburg
studies are especially relevant to today’s dairy producers because all of the
cattle are housed in a commercial facility, managed for high production and bred
to the best bulls in A.I. 2007 production was 18,495 lbs. milk, 1,055 lbs. fat
and 644 lbs. protein for 305-day lactations, ranking third in the U.S. among
herds with 80 to 149 lactations. The herd average for Net Merit dollars this
past April stood at $162 on 170 cows.
Dowlen’s
contributions to the work of dozens of research scientists far exceeded tending
to the needs of cattle and making sure their research protocols were precisely
followed. Neal Schrick, a leading authority in reproductive physiology and
endocrinology, says that Dowlen made them think about the potential usefulness
and practical applications of their work.
“His
dedication to the Jersey breed is above question,” Schrick notes, “and his
desire to find ways to improve production efficiency is second to none. He asked
questions and pointed us ‘academics’ in the right direction of answering
questions for Jersey producers.”
Schrick
recalls that in 1994, when he began his job at the university, Henry Dowlen was
one of the first to arrive at his office door to introduce himself. Henry’s
first question was, “Does mastitis directly affect my cow’s reproductive
performance?” This question led Schrick and fellow UT scientist Steve Oliver
to try and answer the question with retrospective data. Later they challenged
cows with common mastitis-producing organisms to see if there was a direct
effect and not just a relationship.
At
the experiment station, no cow is excused from research. “I will never forget
the day that Henry had to give his highest producing cow mastitis for the sake
of research,” recalls William M. Graves, professor of Animal and Dairy Science
at the University of Georgia.
Dowlen’s responsibilities also
included directing the educational mission of the DREC. He and the staff
coordinated and hosted dairy producers and the community at field days and an
open house each year. They also worked with youth through educational
field days and conducted tours for school-age children.
“Performing research that has the possibility to impact
producers in a positive way becomes more than a job,” Dowlen recently said.
“It becomes a passion.” And for that reason, he
gave numerous talks at producer meetings around the state about research
discoveries and ways to improve herd management. His seminar at the national
Jersey convention in 2000 was on what was perhaps his favorite subject: using
dry cow antibiotic treatment on heifers before their first calving in order to
control and cure mastitis after they freshen.
At the end of June, Dowlen retired as Director of the
Dairy Research and Educational Center. At a celebration June 18, he told the Marshall
County Tribune, “It's been a unique 36-plus years. Mr. Owen (James
Owen, former director) gave us a good start. We've had a lot of good things
happen over the years, and I hope we did a lot for the dairy industry. The
little brown cows paid for most of what goes on here.”
About the
USJersey Organizations
The American Jersey Cattle Association is the oldest dairy
breed organization in the United States, organized in 1868 to improve and
promote the Jersey breed. National All-Jersey Inc. was formed in December of
1957 to promote the increased production and sale of Jersey milk and milk
products. Its wholly owned subsidiary, Jersey Marketing Service, was created in
1970 to provide marketing assistance to buyers and sellers of Jersey genetics.
For more information on services provided by the USJersey
organizations, visit the web site at www.USJersey.com or call 614/861-3636.
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