Athens, Ga. – An alumnus from the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine will return to the college in November to share his 34 years of expertise in the dairy industry.
Robert C. Fry (DVM ’77), who graduated from the college summa cum laude, will be the guest speaker for the Fred Thompson Population Health Food Animal Lecture. His presentation, titled “ONE MILLION COWS, and NOT counting,” will focus on what he has learned during his time in the business and what he would like to learn in the years ahead.
The lecture will be presented on Nov. 2 at 11:30 a.m. in room H203 in the College of Veterinary Medicine. The event is free and open to the public.
Fry launched a bovine veterinary practice on the Delmarva Peninsula, which encompasses portions of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, shortly after his graduation from UGA. His career interest has always centered on production and health issues of dairy cows. In 1994, after many years of working in traditional dairy operations, he became convinced that a healthy alternative was to manage and feed cows with the principles of managed intensive grazing. To that extent, Fry has become a partner in a grazing, seasonal breeding Jersey herd in Kennedyville, Maryland. He continues to practice veterinary medicine and provides nutritional consulting services to dairy herds in the northeastern U.S., and he has been a partner in several dairies in the northeast.
He served as a consultant to dairies around the globe, including a USAID project in Belarus in Eastern Europe and a 4000-cow start-up dairy in Vietnam, as well as to dairies in Colombia and Japan.
In 2005, he was awarded the Merial Preventative Medicine Award for Dairy from the American Association of Bovine Practitioners.
Funding for this event comes from a gift by Fred Thompson, a former faculty member and friend of the College of Veterinary Medicine and the food animal health and management program.
The UGA College of Veterinary Medicine, founded in 1946, is dedicated to training future veterinarians, to conducting research related to animal and human diseases and to providing veterinary services for animals and their owners. Research efforts are aimed at enhancing the quality of life for animals and people, improving the productivity of poultry and livestock, and preserving a healthy interface between wildlife and people in the environment they share. The college enrolls 102 students each fall out of more than 560 who apply. For more information, see www.vet.uga.edu.
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