Industry Insider

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

Dann Brady, co-owner and General Manager of Blondin Sires and Sales and Marketing Manager for Ferme Blondin. PHOTO SUBMITTED. CAREER PATH P 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. 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.

“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.”

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 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.

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.”

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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PHOTOS 1. Dann Brady makes extensive use of the Internet and social media in his marketing and promotion efforts and capturing a video of a show class is just one part of that, 2. Paul and Debbie Brady (left) of Brady View Farms always encouraged their son Dann’s Holstein passion. They share a moment here with Dann and one of his favourites, Blondin Avalanche Darleen, who was Reserve All-Canadian Milking Yearling and Reserve AllCanadian Red & White Junior Cow in 2019 for Ferme Blondin and Blondin Sires. PHOTOS SUBMITTED.

In 2003, Dann accepted a full-time position as a Product Support the marketing. He works a lot and the hours are long. Dann lives Specialist for Semex. “My job was to travel the world and teach seven hours from Ferme Blondin. He and his wife Jeannine, who Semex distributors about our bulls, help develop a mating program is a partner in BarnGirls Photography, live in Aberfoyle, just south for Semex, and look at bull daughters. I spent time on the road with of Guelph. Prior to Covid-19, Dann travelled every 4-6 weeks to Semex Sire Analysts Lowell Lindsay and Brian Carscadden. They Blondin. “Communication is a huge part in making my relationship taught me a lot about cows.” Three years later, Dann was appointed with Ferme Blondin work,” he says. Semex’s Manager of International Embryo Sales when the company established an embryo sales program to help Canadian dairymen BREEDING VIEWS after BSE shut down live cattle exports. “I helped breeders market embryos, pick the bulls to flush to, and assisted international customers in finding embryos,” relates Dann. “I travelled a lot during my nine years at Semex and went to 26 different countries.” When it comes to breeding cows, “Type” and “Longevity” still matter to Dann. As he states, “At the core of our system, it is always the good type cattle that sell well, are in demand, last a long time and breed the next generation for the producer. I love strong, powerful, In 2012, Brady became Sales and Marketing Manager for Ferme hard topped, wide chested cows with great udders. I am a little bit Blondin, the Saint-Placide, QC, Holstein farm owned by Simon old school in that I like older, proven cows, ones that have calved a Lalande and Kim Côté. “I was specifically hired to look after their few times and stood the test of time. Whenever I travelled the world, embryo program and marketing and expand their embryo sales,” he it was always those wide-chested, deep-bodied, powerful cows that states. About the same time, Dann recognized the dramatic impact lasted that were the favourites in everybody’s herd. I know cows still Facebook was starting to have and the ability it gave him to connect need to milk, but a good cow in lifetime production is better for me instantly with breeders around the world. “I had a feeling Facebook than a one lactation 2-year-old. How much milk a cow gives is only was going to be big and would allow us to really grow Blondin’s part of her story. A big part of a cow’s story is her influence on a genetic market. Simon and Kim were open to the idea so we started herd. If a cow has five calves, and in this day of sexed semen four are putting more emphasis on social media to build the Blondin brand heifers, that is where a herd’s future is coming from.” and connect with people. It helped us to grow Blondin’s embryo business quite a lot.” How does genomics play into this? “You might think genomics is contradictory to what I just said,” he answers, “because the whole Dann continues, “Four years ago we found it was getting harder goal of genomics is to go as fast as possible. For a lot of people, and harder to find the kind of bulls we wanted to use at Blondin, genomics is just one index like GLPI or GTPI. But genomics can be bulls with full pedigrees and high conformation. used for everything. It can be used to improve type. We had started genomic testing some of the It can help you identify the weaknesses in a cow as Blondin bulls and a couple had come up high for “How much milk a young heifer, like rump angle, so you can improve conformation. From our embryo sales, we knew there were still people who had a passion for great a cow gives is that trait in the next generation before you visually see it. At Blondin we genomic test almost every animal. type and were also looking for the same kind of only part of her We use genomics as just another tool like classification bulls we were. We started thinking: “If no one story. A big part and milk recording to help us make better breeding else is supplying this product, why can’t we?” That discussion led to the creation of Blondin of a cow’s story decisions for the future.” A perfect example of this is Blondin Avalanche Darleen VG-87-2y who was Sires in June 2016 owned by Dann Brady, Simon is her influence Reserve All-Canadian Milking Yearling and Reserve Lalande and Kim Côté. Simon’s son Nicholas has on a herd.” All-Canadian Red & White Junior Cow last year for since become a shareholder in the A.I. company. Ferme Blondin and Blondin Sires. “Darleen is one of “I made the decision to work for Ferme Blondin initially because Simon and Kim believed in the same things that I did,” explains Dann. “It was the same reason we started Blondin Sires because we all believed in the same type of my favourites because she combines everything that we are trying to achieve. She can show, has pedigree, and classifies and milks well. She did everything we wanted, plus she has the genomics to go with it (+15 Conformation).” - DANN BRADY animals and had the same passion.” Dann goes on to comment, “Because of genomics, one of the biggest Blondin Sires has sampled 27 bulls to date. It expects to have official proofs on its first bulls in December. Among its most popular bulls have been Army, Unstopabull and Thunder Storm. improvements I think we will see in the next few years will be in health traits, things that we can’t visually see and wouldn’t know until a cow was in her first, second or third lactation. With genomics, we will be able to create cows that are healthier, live longer and breed Dann is the General Manager of Blondin Sires. While the owners back easier.” collectively decide which bulls to purchase, Dann is responsible for acquiring the bulls, overseeing the collection, inventory and sales of semen, setting up and working with foreign distributors, and doing At the same time Dann warns, however, “We can’t lose focus on where we came from. We have an awesome new tool in genomics, but we still need to combine that with classification and milk recording. We THE Link SUMMER/FALL 2020 WWW.ONTARIO.HOLSTEIN.CA

have all these great cows today because we have milk recorded and classified for decades. We have used that information to improve our breed. Some people think we don’t need to classify or milk record anymore because our breed is good enough. Well, what if breeders said that in 1945? Where would we be today? I never want us to say we are good enough. There will always be traits that we want to improve.” As he states, “We are all in this together. If people stop classifying and milk recording then less data goes into the system for everyone to use to make better breeding decisions. Some say we have genomics and that is all we need. But I am a firm believer that the more information that goes in, the better the product you get out.”

He continues, “Our classification and milk recording programs, however, need to keep adapting to the changing environment, and to the younger breeders coming in, with more technology. Technology is going to be a huge part of our future. We need to combine that technology with all the data we have to give us the cows of the future.”

Going forward, Dann feels one of the industry’s biggest issues will be “access and openness of information”. “As breeders,” he says, “we need to ensure we always have access to OUR data. And that the data that is OURS stays OURS. We don’t want other corporations to have our data and then tell us what to do with it. As breeders we need to have the control and say in how our data is used. We need that information to breed the cow of the future. Our Canadian system is one of the best in the world because it was built on openness and allowing everybody to have access to the information. When we all work together and share information, we can all make better breeding decisions.”

The internet and social media have fundamentally changed the Holstein industry Dann says. “I can make a post about a bull and literally thousands of people around the world will see it within minutes. They can comment on it, interact with us and ask questions. Social media has changed the way people breed cows because they are more educated about the genetics they are using.”

In today’s world, keeping one’s enthusiasm for the Holstein business is not always easy. “We are lucky to have a quota system in Canada that has helped us to keep our passion. Unfortunately, passion is often connected to milk price. It is hard for people in other countries to remain motivated and excited when they are just trying to survive and pay their bills.” Dann uses his Facebook engagement to encourage others to keep their passion alive for good type and genetics. “I am a very positive person. I try to let people know there are other people out there that love the same things they love so they don’t get discouraged.”

Dann Brady…a young man with a passion for great cows and the Holstein business.

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