Getting to Know the PAC Team: Dr. Dan Thomson

Hi, I’m Dr. Dan Thomson, a third generation bovine veterinarian raised in Clearfield, IA. My grandfather started our practice in Clearfield in 1938 and my dad John Thomson joined the practice in 1967. Clearfield, IA is a small town. I graduated with 8 kids in my high school class. Besides our clinic, we had a commercial cow herd and a few horses and bird dogs around for our hobbies.

I got my Animal Science and DVM degrees at Iowa State University in 2000. When I was an undergraduate at Iowa State, I rode pens and fed cattle for two ruminant nutrition professors. It really opened my eyes on how few animals really get sick. Being a vet’s kid, everything I ever saw was sick. So my interests moved towards production systems and led me to do a MS in Ruminant Nutrition at South Dakota State University and a PhD in Ruminant Nutrition from Texas Tech University. Being a nutritionist and a veterinarian, I just ride around arguing with myself.

I did a short stint as an associate veterinarian with Veterinary Research and Consulting Services in Greeley, CO. But then I was hired by Jack Rhoades and the Engler family to serve as the Director of Animal Health and Well-being for Cactus Feeders in Amarillo, TX. I was the veterinary consultant for their 10 commercial feedlots that fed 1.2 million head of cattle per year and directed their animal health research at the Cactus research facility.

Currently, I am the Jones Professor of Production Medicine at Kansas State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. I have been fortunate to work with the PAC group from the beginning when it was just a few of us in the basement of the bank in Oakley. My role with PAC is being defined by the group and I enjoy squeezing in wherever the group needs me to assist. In the future, I hope to work with the yards, the research business and provide a niche for PAC working with beef packers and retailers in the interest of our beef production clietns. I have served on McDonald’s Beef Health and Welfare Committee and the Animal Welfare Advisory Board of the Food Marketing Institute, the Beef Quality Assurance Committee of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the Animal Welfare committees of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners and the Academy of Veterinary Consultants.

You might have seen me on RFD TV in a show I host entitled “Doc Talk” that reaches over 45 million homes world-wide. We have a blast with the show and have enjoyed feedback from all the viewers. If you have a topic, let me know.

On a personal note, I have a great family life. Cindy and I have been married for 25 years and she teaches science at Riley County High School. We have 4 daughters, Kelly, Katelyn, Tory and Sarah. The oldest two are at K-State where Kelly will play her last basketball season for the Wildcats. Katelyn finished up her college basketball at Cloud County Community College and will be in Animal Science at K-State. Tory is a junior and Sarah is a freshman at Riley County High School. My hobbies are the daughters’ activities and a little hunting or fishing in southwest Iowa when time allows.