The board of directors of Cooperative Research Farms elected officers during its November 15 meeting.
Mario Boivin, senior director ruminant - livestock production with Sollio Agriculture, will serve as president of the board of directors of CRF for a two-year term. Boivin received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in animal sciences from Université Laval and has worked within the Sollio Agriculture network for more than 30 years. He has also been a past member of CRF’s dairy research team and the research committee. Boivin is based in Sollio’s office in Lévis, Québec.
Paul M. Kalmbach, CEO of Kalmbach Feeds Inc., was elected vice president of the CRF Board. Kalmbach is a graduate of Ohio State University, where he received his Bachelor of Science in engineering and his Master of Science in agriculture. He most recently served as treasurer and was also a past president of CRF’s board of directors.
Todd Steen completed a two-year term as president of CRF’s board of directors and will now serve as treasurer. Steen is a ruminant nutritionist with CRF member Tennessee Farmers Cooperative, specializing in dairy nutrition since 1990. He also provides technical service support for all animals. Steen received his Bachelor of Science from Abilene Christian University and Master of Science from the University of Tennessee. Steen has nine peer-reviewed publications including six CRF research reports. He has also been a member of the CRF organization since 1990 and has served as coordinator of the CRF's dairy research team, beef research team, and equine and specialty research team; as well as chair of the CRF research committee.
Other members of CRF’s board of directors include Michel Layus and Sharon Klinger.
Layus is the general manager of the innovative feed solutions business line of MiXscience. He received a Master of Science in animal science in 1989 from INAPG (University Paris-Grignon). He started his career in Glon-Sanders company and occupied different positions such as swine genetic activity Manager, swine feed activity manager and global manager for the premix and feed additives activity in Sanders until the creation of MiXscience 2014. Layus is the president of the AFCA CIAL (French association of feed additives and premix producers).
Klinger was appointed by Federated Co-operatives Ltd. to the board of directors of Cooperative Research Farms in May 2021. She received her B.S.A in animal and poultry science in 2001, and her Master of Science in ruminant nutrition in 2005, both from the University of Saskatchewan. She joined Federated Co-operatives Ltd. in 2005 as a ruminant nutritionist. Klinger was an active member of the CRF beef research team, dairy research team and equine and specialty research team, and has represented Federated on the CRF Research Committee. In 2016, she moved to her current position, animal nutrition and compliance manager, and is responsible for leading the nutrition team at Federated, administering the HACCP/FeedAssure program at all Federated feed plants, overseeing customer complaints, and does some ration formulation for ruminants.
Secretary of the board of directors is David Ott, CRF general manager since 1999. Prior to that time, he was employed by a CRF member as the manager of swine feed sales and marketing, and as a technical services specialist. While employed in those positions, he was a member of the CRF swine research team and communications committee. Ott graduated from the University of Illinois with a Bachelor of Science in agriculture in 1985 and a Master of Science in animal sciences (swine nutrition and management) in 1986.
CRF is a multi-national organization of feed manufacturers in North America and Europe. For 69 years, CRF members have worked together conducting 3,275 nutrition- and management-related research trials for the benefit of their customers. The members of CRF include Kalmbach Feeds Inc., Upper Sandusky, Ohio; MiXscience, Bruz, France; Sollio Agriculture, Montreal, Quebec; Tennessee Farmers Cooperative, LaVergne, Tennessee; and Federated Co-operatives Ltd., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The combined scope of the CRF membership represents 13 million metric tons of final feed equivalents, 45-member owned feed mills manufacturing feeds of the highest quality, 1,615 employees working to provide superior animal nutrition products and 93 highly skilled individuals employed in research, development and technical support.
