INDUSTRY INSIDER
INTERVIEW BY BONNIE COOPER
Dann Brady’s Passion for the Holstein Business GENERAL MANAGER AND CO-OWNER OF BLONDIN SIRES
“The Internet was a huge factor in fueling my passion for the Holstein business because I could connect with people all over the world that had the same passion I did.” - DANN BRADY
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Dann Brady, co-owner and General Manager of Blondin Sires and Sales and Marketing Manager for Ferme Blondin. PHOTO SUBMITTED.
POSITIVE. ARTICULATE. COMPETITIVE. HARD WORKING. ALL WORDS THAT DESCRIBE DANN BRADY. THOSE TRAITS, COMBINED WITH UNBRIDLED ENTHUSIASM FOR HOLSTEINS AND THE USE OF THE INTERNET AND SOCIAL MEDIA, HAVE ENABLED BRADY TO BUILD A SUCCESSFUL CAREER THAT HAS NOW LED HIM TO BE GENERAL MANAGER AND CO-OWNER OF BLONDIN SIRES.
CAREER PATH
Dann Brady, a 39-year-old Eastern Ontario native, is the son of Paul and Debbie Brady of Brady View Farms, Perth. Growing up, Dann and his sister Nicole helped on the family farm with its 60-cow Holstein herd in a tie-stall barn. As a boy, Dann recalls, “As soon as the Holstein Journal came, I would sit and study it page by page.” Dann’s parents always encouraged his Holstein interest. When he was 13, he remembers them surprising him at school to take him to the 1993 Eastern Reflections Sale in Ottawa. “I had studied that catalogue front to back and knew every single lot,” he says.
was Brady View Integrity Lilly EX-92-2E 3* who was Reserve AllCanadian 4-H Junior Calf in 2002. Dann cites Ken Kilgour, an Eastern Breeders Inc. technician, and Hugh Hunter of Maple-Ain Holsteins, as clipping and judging mentors to him while in 4-H.
“My Dad had a big passion for Holsteins,” notes Dann. “When Holstein Canada announced that we could look up any pedigree we wanted on their website, he was the reason we got the internet. Once we got that, I became really hooked into looking into pedigrees because I could research everything. The internet was a huge factor in fueling my passion for the Holstein business because all of a sudden I could connect with people all over the world that had the same passion I did.”
At 15, Dann started his own web design company. “I basically learned how to make a website because our farm couldn’t afford to take a full page ad in the breed magazines to advertise our cows. The Internet had just started and I thought I could teach myself how to make a site. Once other people saw our website, they asked me to do one for them. My business grew from there. I built websites for Holstein breeders all over the world.” Needing a place to showcase those websites, Dann created a web page called HolsteinOnline.com. To encourage return visitors to his site, he added a news section, classification updates and a discussion forum. It became very popular. “I did this all through high school and university,” says Dann. “I would go to school during the day and then work all night designing websites. It is the reason I am in marketing today.”
4-H and sports, particularly hockey, were part of Dann’s life too. “My first year in 4-H I had a Counselor calf who was Junior Champion at our Lanark County 4-H Show. Having that good heifer sparked my competitiveness. I loved to show. I showed many times at the 4-H Classic at the Royal,” he says. One of Dann’s last 4-H animals
After graduating from a two-year Agricultural Business diploma program at the University of Guelph in 2002, Brady returned home. He sold semen for Alta Genetics and Foundation Sires for eight months. He moved back to Guelph the following year when he took an eight-month contract job at Holstein Canada in Brantford doing market research.
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