2020 Member Director Award

Dan Andreas

The 2020 NAAB Member Director Awardee is Dan Andreas. Dan has exhibited leadership ability and commitment to the development of the A.I. industry for the past 42 years. He was elected to the COBA/Select Sires Board of Directors in 2002 and served as the Chair from 2015 until 2020. He was elected to serve on the Select Sires Inc. Board in 2007 and served on the Farm and Building Committee, International Committee, Art Committee and Research Committee from 2007 until 2020. Dan was elected as the Chair of the Select Sires Board in May 2016 and served in that capacity through 2020.

Dan Andreas from Sugarcreek, Ohio graduated from The Ohio State University where he earned BA and MA degrees in education and a BS in Animal Nutrition. While attending Ohio State, Dan was a three-year letterman on the Varsity Basketball team from 1967-1970 and was a member of the 1968 team that was Big Ten Champions and participated in the Final Four. Dan received the recognition of Academic All-Big Ten in 1970. Dan went on to coach basketball for 18 years as a graduate assistant at OSU and then coached junior high at Garaway and high school at Westland High School in Columbus, Ohio where he also taught high school chemistry.

Dan left his teaching position in 1978 and returned to the family farm joining his father (Paul) and brother (Bill) on a fifth-generation family farm where he and his family grew the herd from 180 cows in 1978 to its current size of more than 1500 Holsteins. The farm is now a sixth-generation family farm that employs 26 full time staff and includes 3,500 acres raising corn, soybeans, wheat, and grass hay. The farm has been selected twice to receive the USDA Soil and Water cooperator farm of the year award. They maintain a herd of 250 Holstein steers and are transitioning to cross-bred Holstein/Limflex animals.

Along with overseeing these operations, Dan has been very involved in many leadership activities in the community and cattle industry, including Dairy Shrine member, former director of the Goshen Dairy Company, member of the Tuscarawas County and Ohio Holstein Association, member of the Ohio Farm Bureau, past member of Reiter Dairy Company, Milk Marketing Inc., Dairy Farmers of America, Maryland-Virginia Milk Producers Co-op, and a current member of the Ohio Milk Producers and Varsity O. Dan was inducted into the Ohio State University’s Dairy Science Hall of Service in 1997.

During his term as Select Sires, Inc. Chair, he led the organization through the implementation of several growth projects both nationally and internationally. He oversaw the continued restructure of the Select Sires Federation. He also served on the Board of Directors for World Wide Sires in Visalia, CA and was an international ambassador for US genetics and travelled internationally representing Select Sires and World Wide Sires.

Dan and wife, Lois celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2021. They have two sons. Matthew is vice-president of Andreas Farms representing the 6th generation and Jason is in a management position at Google. They have 4 grandchildren ranging in age from 4 to 8 years old.

Dan’s significant contributions through his service to the dairy industry, Select Sires, and NAAB make him a very worthy recipient of the NAAB Member Director Award.