History of the Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock
E. B Burnside, J. W. Wilton, L. R. Schaeffer, S. P. Miller and FF.S. Schenkel
1984 – 1994: E. B. Burnside and J. W. Wilton
How did the Idea of a Centre Arise? I took a year-long sabatic leave in Australia, at the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit,( AGBU) which was associated with the University of New England, Armidale, Australia. I was very impressed with the level of funding for research which this small but highly motivated and capable research group was attracting from not only the State of New South Wales, but also from the Australian dairy and meat animal industries, for genetic improvement programs. I assisted in developing a genetic evaluation system for dairy sires for conformation, in collaboration with Dr. Sandy McClintock and Dr. Karen Meyer, at AGBU. I also spent 2 months touring Australia, educating dairy farmers and Artificial Insemination ( AI) decision makers on the use of the first national genetic evaluation system for dairy production traits that applied Best Linear Unbiased Prediction, BLUP as it came to be known in ranking dairy sires. These two national sire evaluation systems caused revolutionary rerankings of dairy sires used in AI. Dr. Keith Hammond the founder and director of AGBU convinced me that agricultural science needed centres where research on genetic evaluation of livestock was the focus. I knew that BLUP technology was about to sweep the world with applications to livestock improvement and that the University of Guelph could lead the wave. I came back to Canada determined that Guelph was the logical place for such a centre, and the timing was right!
The Animal Breeding Laboratory, established by Dr. Clare Rennie in the 1950’ s was carrying out Genetic Evaluations for dairy cattle conformation, and other traits and we were about to embark on development of many systems for genetic evaluation of livestock, using the BLUP technology developed by Dr. Charles Henderson of Cornell Universaity, and brought back to Canada by Drs. Larry Schaeffer and Brian Kennedy, both faculty of the Department of Animal and Poultry Science, and key members of the Centre. Thus a Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock ( CGIL) seemed like the logical name. I drafted the proposal for the CGIL for the Research Advisory Board of the University, and Dr. Wilton edited it. Dr. Bill Tossell, Director for Research at the University was helpful in steering it through the Research Advisory Board, and the I spoke for the creation of the Centre at the University of Guelph Senate Meeting in June, 1984. President Burton Matthews chair of the Senate stated, “ This Centre has truly been in existence since Clare Rennie established the Animal Breeding Laboratory in the 1950’s” The motion to create the Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock passed with a resounding majority, and the University immediately approached the IBM Corporation of Canada, which was providing computing on the Campus Facility, to provide the CGIL with a stand-alone fully dedicated computer, an IBM 4341 computer, to be used exclusively for genetics research. Up until that time faculty who conducted research on large databases were required to make their analytical “runs “ late at night, when other users were home in bed. The idea of a 24-hour available fully dedicated computer was very exciting and did much to raise the morale of the group of Animal genetics faculty and students who were used to late hours in order to make long runs on large databases. In conjunction with the creation of the CGIL, Dr. Anil Sheth, was seconded to the CGIL for one year to work with Messers George Smith and Ernie Etter to evaluate Data Base Management Systems, and after reviewing those avail;able they recommended the “NOMAD “ system which was implemented to manage the gigantic dairy, beef, swine and other species data which rapidly accumulated. In kicking off Centres at the University I expected $100,000 as a “ start-up[ funding , form the central Administration. This was the case for other centres, however Vice President told me that the computer was really all they would provide. I responded that our Centre would be in existence long after the centres being created “from the Top Down”were gone, even if they started off with $100,000. History has proven that we were right!