Darrell Pidgeon

Darrell began his dairy career as a 10-year-old 4-H boy in Ohio where he purchased two registered Guernsey heifers. He parlayed that into a very productive lifetime career in the dairy business. He began preparing and showing for top herds all over the country. Darrell traveled in boxcars numerous times with elite show herds such as Curtiss Candy Farms, McDonald Farms to fairs all over the Midwest and Eastern United States.

In 1961, Darrell was hired by Mr. J. C. Penney to prepare his Guernsey herd for its dispersal near Gallatin, Missouri.

In the early 1960’s as an Ohio State University student, Darrell won high individual at the National Collegiate Dairy Cattle judging contest and was awarded the Kildee Scholarship which he used for his Master’s Degree under Dr. John Sikes at the University of Missouri to study dairy cattle genetics. In 1966, Darrell became the director of the American Breeders Service Young Sire program and for the next four years traveled the country extensively selecting young bulls and arranging contract matings for such bulls for ABS.

In 1970, Darrell became a partner and herdsman at Paclamar Farms in Colorado and has lived in Colorado ever since. In 1973, an Italian businessman, Pierre Talenti purchased the Paclamar herd and Darrell flew with the herd on each of two chartered DC-8’s flights from Denver to Rome, Italy and stayed there for six weeks to be sure the cattle became acclimated to their new home. Darrell got deeper into the cattle export business partnering with Dave Bachman and later with his own Pidgeon Cattle Company. During his lifetime, he exported tens of thousands of dairy cattle to Japan, China, Korea, Mexico and Eastern Europe often riding the airplanes with the cattle being moved.

Darrell and his wife Ann have been married for over 50 years. They have two children Marla Katherine and Andrew and two grandchildren.