Inductees

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Dr. Ted Burnside's work in the evolution and development of animal improvement in Canada has had a major impact on the profitability of Ontario herds over the last 60 years. Ted led the use of research and technology to maximize the genetic improvement of livestock. He challenged the livestock industry to embrace new concepts, and he was at the forefront of countless breakthroughs in animal improvement. These included animal evaluation with increased emphasis on production and health traits, the expanded use of young sire proving programs, higher daughter numbers per sire in sire proving, the introduction of embryo transfer, cross breeding in commercial dairy herds, and the use of gene markers and genomics. Among his greatest legacies, are the hundreds of students he taught and mentored and who have been inspired to become industry leaders in advancing animal genetic improvement.

Dr. Burnside spent 31 years at the University of Guelph in teaching and research, and one of his major career accomplishments was his work in animal evaluation. In 1986, he co-founded and directed the Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, which was instrumental in accelerating genetic progress, in turn resulting in many export spin-offs for Ontario genetics. This organization is still a vital component of animal improvement.

For two decades, Ted coordinated the Dairy Genetic Evaluation Program, which evolved into the independent Canadian Dairy Network.  Ted also saw the need for a global sire evaluation system, and was a co-founder of Interbull, which persists today, ranking dairy sires globally for key dairy traits. His work led to Canada being recognized as a world leader in genetic evaluations and driving the explosive growth of sales of Canadian livestock, semen, and embryos around the world.

Ted also managed to integrate a very busy extension outreach program speaking at producer meetings and industry conferences across the country while emphasizing the need to focus on the economic traits of calving ease, female reproduction, milking speed, and length of herd life, in addition to udder, and feet and legs conformation.  He did educational tours in many countries to market Canadian genetics, and from 1999-2004 he worked with Geno from Norway and Gencor (now EastGen) to conduct a dairy cross breeding research program. During this time, some of the first immune response work was done leading to the development of Immunity+ Genetics by Semex. Ted published over 130 research papers and for his decades of high-quality research, he has received many awards including the American Dairy Science JL Lush Award which is the most prestigious global distinction in animal breeding. In 1995, he received the honour of Professor Emeritus from the University of Guelph.

Dr. Ted Burnside has had a significant impact on the genetic evolution of livestock resulting in increased profitability for the whole industry and healthier, more productive livestock. He has played a major role in securing Canada's reputation as a world leader in animal genetics. 

Certainly, he is an admirable inductee into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame.