John Basarab, PhD, BSc, P. Ag

Area of Study / Keywords

Beef cattle genetics genomics management feed efficiency greenhouse gas emissions

About

John was born and raised in High Prairie located in the Peace country of northern Alberta. He grow-up on a commercial cow-calf farm and spent his summer helping his father with cattle management and hay production operations. His winters were spend playing hockey and, of course, schooling. John attended the University of Alberta where he received his BSc in Agriculture majoring in Animal Science, and then his PhD in Animal Genetics and Biochemistry under the supervision of Dr. Roy Berg. John has always been active in sports such as hockey, downhill and cross-country skiing, slow-pitch baseball, cycling, curling and golfing.  He is Past President and Lifetime Member of Northern Alberta Curling Association, was on-ice coach for the Junior Curling Program at the Lacombe Curling Club for 15 years, and along with his curling team, 2022 Canada 65+ Mixed Curling Gold Medal Winner. He presently lives in Lacombe Alberta with his wife Gwen. They have two children, Katie and Michael, who live in Edmonton and one grand daughter, Ellie.

Research

John has over 30 years experience in beef cattle production and management. His current research areas include improving feed efficiency, DNA pooling as a low-cost genotyping strategy, development and evaluation of indexes for replacement heifer selection, more profitable feeder cattle for beef-on-beef and beef-on-dairy production systems, and management strategies to improve the resilience of beef cattle to climate change.  Work completed has included the development of one of the largest genotype-phenotype databases for beef cattle in Canada for genetic marker discovery, global collaborations, and validation of the genomic tools like EnVigour HX. He is Associate Professor, Livestock Genetics at the University of Alberta, Director of Beef Operations for Livestock Gentec, and past Associate Editor for the Canadian Journal of Animal Science. He is also the author or co-author of more than 300 scientific and extension articles and is the winner of the 2010 Canadian Animal Industries Award in Extension and Public Service. John received his Ph.D. degree in Animal Genetics and Biochemistry in 1981 from the University of Alberta. 

Teaching

John has presented more than 250 seminars in Canada, USA, Mexico, Japan, China, New Zealand, Brazil, and UK, and presented papers at more than 50 major conferences. He also presents materials on radio, video and through more than 190 extension and popular press articles. He has given beef cattle management and genetics lectures to veterinary students for China's Ministry of Agriculture and to producers in Mexico. John has also taught an Animal Breeding course and given numerous guest seminars on feed efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions at the University of Alberta. In 2020, John and the Livestock Gentec team received the Don Matthews Memorial Award from the Canadian Beef Breeds Council, and in 2010 John received the Canadian Animal Industries Award in Extension and Public Service.