Dan Burd

Dan Burd was born June 17, 1955 at Springfield Hospital, the son of Loyal and Opal Burd. He and two younger siblings grew up on a Holstein and Jersey dairy farm in Long Lane where he lived for 23 years.

In 1973 he graduated from Buffalo High School and then furthered his education at State Fair Community College where he received an associate of art degree in 1976. Dan then went to Northwest Missouri State University and received a degree in agriculture in 1982. Later he received a vocational agriculture teaching certificate from Southwest Missouri State University.

Dan was an active member of the Jolly Jump-Up 4-H Club and showed Holstein, Jersey, and Angus steers at local fairs. He was a member of the 1973 4-H state dairy judging team that was fourth at the national 4-H contest held in Ohio. He traveled with the University of Missouri dairy judging team which won at Madison, Wis., and his future wife, Sally Sparkman, was a member. Sally earned both her B.S. degree in dairy science and doctorate in veterinary medicine from MU in 1975 and 1978 respectively.

Dan worked for Steele and King Holstein farm in 1975. From there he moved to Dallas where he first worked in construction and later became an AMPI serviceman. He was transferred to Mountain Grove in 1989 with AMPI as a field man. Dan left AMPI in 1993 to dairy fulltime.

He married Sally in 1990 and they moved to their current farm in Graff. “I wasn’t familiar with Milking Shorthorns when I married Sally and started milking her herd,” he said. “I learned fast.”

There are currently 100 head of cows in DanSal Dairy which consists of 70 Milking Shorthorns and the rest Ayrshire, Jersey, and Holstein. They are milked in a stanchion bam but a parallel barn is nearly complete.

Prior to Dan managing the cattle there had been no excellent milk production awards nor All Americans. The herd has bred 17 excellent, two Junior All Americans, four Reserve Junior All Americans, four Honorable Mention All Americans, three Reserve All Americans, and three Honorable Mention All Americans.

In addition, the herd has won the national progressive production bronze award for milk. He consistently has cows on the production honor roll and several Milking Shorthorns have been honored for 100,000 pounds of milk in five lactations or less. There were also three genetic merit award winners at the World Dairy Expo.

Dan has been a supporter of dairy organizations including membership in state and national Jersey, Milking Shorthorn, and Holstein associations. He is a member of the Missouri Jersey board of directors and served as a delegate to the National Milking Shorthorn meeting. He also served six years on the Wright County DHI board and was treasurer for a time. The farm has hosted picnics and farm visits for the Missouri and National Milking Shorthorn Associations and Wright County DHIA.

The Burds enjoy showing their cattle and usually go to several county fairs, the Ozark Empire Fair, and the MidSouth Fair in Memphis. Also they venture from time to time to the National Junior Milking Shorthorn Show, World Dairy Expo, and North American International Livestock Exposition. They have won premier breeder and exhibitor awards at the MidSouth Fair, Southern National Show, Ozark Empire Fair, and Missouri State Fair.

Dan has bred milk champion award winners at the Ozark Empire Fair in Ayrshire, Jersey, and Milking Shorthorn. Cattle carrying the DanSal prefix have been exhibited to championship honors in six different states including the most recent of 2005 National Grand Champion of the junior show at the North American International Livestock Show for daughter Susan on her 2004 Junior All American three-year old.

The Burd family consists of John, 9; Susan, 13; Ross, 15; and stepdaughters Kerry, 23 and Sarah, 25. Sarah is married to Josh Kampala, has a seven-month old son named Alex and works at her mother’s mixed animal clinic as office manager.

Kerry is earning her doctorate in physical therapy from Southwest Missouri State University; Ross is in high school and is a ROTC member; Susan is an eighth grade honor student, runs cross country, is secretary of the school 4-H/FFA Club, honor choir, math team, and county 4-H treasurer. She was the 2004 National Milking Shorthorn Junior Progressive breeder award winner, 2003 State Junior Jersey girl, and won second in the 2005 state dairy judging contest.

John is a third-grade honor student, is in Boy Scouts, plays YMCA basketball and was fifth in the 2005 State Dairy Judging Contest. He had the grand champion car in the pinewood derby for his Boy Scout pack.

The three younger children are members of the Countyline 4-H Club and the family is a member of the Friendship Baptist Church.