Select Sires has dedicated the European Union-qualified barns at their Plain City, Ohio facility as the D.R. Monke Production Center in honor of retiring vice president of production operations, Dr. Donald Roy Monke. Completed in 2010, these are bio-secure, environmentally friendly production facilities that house bulls qualified for semen shipment to any location in the world.
Monke will retire on June 30, 2017 after a 40-year career at Select Sires. He was the first staff veterinarian in Select Sires history and eventually became vice president of production operations in 2003 where he coordinates the work of semen collection teams, progeny test bull herds, farming operations, maintenance, bull transport and the veterinarian department. Monke has been instrumental in coordinating and designing several construction and remodel projects.
Monke graduated from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine in 1977 and received a master’s of business administration degree from Franklin University in 2003. He served on the National Association of Animal Breeder’s (NAAB) Sire Health and Management Committee for many years and was chair of the Certified Semen Services board of directors for ten years. In 1999, he was elected to the NAAB board of directors and served as chairman from 2003 to 2005. He was a member of the United States Animal Health Association for over 30 years and co-chair of the Bluetongue and Bovine Retrovirus Committee from 1999 to 2001. He served on the Dairy Subcommittee of the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board from 2010 to 2011 and is currently a member of the Cattle Health Advisory Committee for the Ohio Department of Agriculture. Monke has traveled to Japan, Australia, Europe and South America as a veterinary technical advisor to USDA, NAAB and World Wide Sires, and assisted with the negotiation of international health regulations. Dr. Monke received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine in 2007 and the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of Animal Breeders in 2014.
“Dr. Monke has been one of the pillars that helped build Select Sires into the company it is today,” explains David Thorbahn, Select Sires president and C.E.O. “Don has not only been a pioneer in research and international health standards for Select Sires but has been a pioneer in advancing the entire A.I. industry.”
Based in Plain City, Ohio, Select Sires Inc. is North America’s largest A.I. organization and is comprised of nine farmer-owned and -controlled cooperatives. As the industry leader, it provides highly fertile semen as well as excellence in service and programs to achieve its basic objective of supplying dairy and beef producers with North America’s best genetics at a reasonable price.
