Congratulations to Dan K. Bansen, Dayton, Ore., for being named the 68th recipient of the Master Breeder Award of the American Jersey Cattle Association.
The Master Breeder award is bestowed annually to a living AJCA member, family, partnership or corporation that, in the opinion of the Board of Directors, has bred outstanding animals for many years and thereby made a notable contribution to the advancement of the Jersey breed in the United States.
Dan Bansen has become a second-generation Master Breeder Award recipient, after his father, Stanley, who won the award in 1990. They are the only father-son duo to win the award in AJCA history.
Bansen returned to the family operation after graduating from Oregon State University in 1973. The herd became full recorded with the AJCA after Genetic Recovery was introduced in 1976, and gained recognition through enrollment on official performance evaluation programs. The current Forest Glen herd has 1,500 milk cows and 1,770 heifers. The 2010 AJCA lactation average is 16,529 lbs. milk, 737 lbs. fat and 614 lbs. protein on 1,189 lactations. There are currently 78 Excellent cows and 877 Very Good cows in the herd. Forest Glen has twice received the President’s Trophy presented annually to the highest producing cow.
Forest Glen bred the all-time leader for Jersey semen sales at Select Sires, Forest Glen Avery Action-ET. Since 2004, the herd has sent 38 bulls to A.I. and there are currently nine bulls on the active A.I. list and one bull on the genomic young sire list bearing the Forest Glen prefix.
Dan is an Equity investor and has been very involved with milk marketing through his involvement as Board President of Farmers Cooperative Creamery and with Organic Valley CROPP cooperative. Dan has also served as a director of the American Jersey Cattle Association and National All-Jersey Inc.