Farewell to Interbull Friends

By Paul VanRaden

May 20, 2024

Thank you, Gerben [de Jong] for the kind words and Matt [Shaffer] for the nice gift. I have always enjoyed coming to Interbull meetings to hear a wider variety of ideas and think about the bigger picture of animal breeding. Then after we go home, each of us spends most of our time thinking about what is best for our own organization or country because they pay our salaries and expect us to focus on their issues. But the Interbull staff are required to do what is best for the whole world because their salaries are user fees that come from the whole world.

Each year to get permission to come to this meeting I have to fill out a form and one of the main questions is How will this trip benefit the United States Department of Agriculture? I always write down good reasons, but I feel like replying No, you do not understand. When I am at Interbull and especially in the Technical Committee I think only about what is best for the whole world and not what benefits USA, that does not even cross my mind. But when I was in the Steering Committee sometimes after I went home, they would ask Did you vote for what was best for USA or what was best for the whole world? They did not like my answer, which is probably why I had only one term on the Steering Committee.

Being at Interbull gives me time to think about what is best for the whole world, and maybe that happens to all of us while we are here. That is unique and important, and I thank Interbull in general for letting me be a part of this. Thank you.

[I gave this speech in Slovenia at the Interbull annual meeting after serving on its committees and working groups for about 20 years before retiring from USDA]

Pete and Heather Sullivan, Paul, Tom Lawlor.

Photo by Zengting Liu.

Pete and Heather Sullivan, Paul, Zengting Liu.

Photo by Tom Lawlor.

March 14, 2025

To Interbull Technical Committee:
Already last year I said goodbye in Slovenia with the speech below and again today in case the US government might be shut down next week. Last week, federal employees were told that no travel will be permitted such as to ADSA / Interbull even if an outside source offers to fund the trip. Three weeks ago all new employees hired in the last year were fired including one of mine, but this week courts ruled that they must be rehired. Our government now seems to have the opposite philosophy that I have and Interbull has. On behalf of the US government, today I apologize if our actions hurt you. Soon, in retirement, I will work full time on making the world a better place.
Paul VanRaden

March 16, 2025

Paul,

Your legacy will be long-remembered in the Interbull and international communities. It has been an absolute pleasure for me, personally, to work closely with you through our Interbull connection. Thank you very much for these inspiring words that give us all a reason to pause, even if it is just for one meeting, one day, one hour, or simply a precious moment, to reflect on what truly matters in the work that we do, and the connections we make around the world.

Wishing you the very best in your continuing journey ahead..!

Pete Sullivan

Lactanet, Guelph, ON, Canada

March 17, 2025

Subject: Thank you for your support throughout the years!

Dear Paul,

It is sad to have learnt that you will not be allowed to attend this year's Interbull meeting in your own country. As the other international colleagues, we from Germany are grateful to you for your scientific contributions to the Interbull communities and dairy breeding in general. 

After you published the seminal paper on genomic evaluation in 2008, we at vit quickly switched our focus to the new, challenging field of genomic evaluation. Your genotype imputing software findhap was extremely helpful for us to integrate low density chips into our routine genomic evaluation for German Holstein. On the genetic defects' imputation, we appreciated very much your technical assistances as well. 

Young animal scientists start their careers usually with genomics and tend to know less about the significant development in animal model evaluation in the 90s. In fact, your 1991 JDS paper with George on animal model evaluation was among the few papers I cited in most of our publications. 

I like your postings on your own website and share your world view, which I fully support and is also mine. 

Enjoy your retirement life and keep doing exercise like swimming and counting numbers in English and German. I will teach you how to pronounce the numbers in Chinese later in an email.  

All the best to you and your family!

Zengting 

Dr. Zengting LIU, Geneticist, IT Solutions for Animal Production (vit w.V.), Verden, Germany 

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