Nick Dale, CAES professor of poultry science, came to Athens in 1973 after spending two years in the Peace Corps in Chile
Nick Dale, CAES professor of poultry science, came to Athens in 1973 after spending two years in the Peace Corps in Chile
How did a Latin-American history major from upstate New York find his way to our college's poultry science department? By way of Chile, of course.
Nick Dale, CAES professor of poultry science, came to Athens in 1973 after spending two years in the Peace Corps in Chile. While there, he saw the need for experts in food production. An old roommate told him about the University of Georgia, so he came to Athens and started his education over. After completing his doctorate in 1985, he joined the UGA Extension Service poultry science group, specializing in feeds and nutrition.
"I never understood how people could map out their lives," Dale says. "I met my wife on a bus in Ecuador. I just think you can't plan for how your life comes together."
However, working with the commercial poultry business does require some planning.
"Almost all poultry companies have nutritionists with advanced degrees. They read the same journals I do," Dale says. So he conducts field studies that apply to industry situations to give them workable solutions.
"A field study properly conducted is research," Dale says. "If you do the statistics and have the proper controls, it's valuable research."
Dale addresses needs in the industry to work on feed ingredient quality. Of course, the commercial nutritionists have their own labs to run tests on nutrition. But Dale's work supplements their information by running feeding tests on chickens.
Simply put, "we put the feed in the top, catch what comes out the bottom and analyze it in the lab," Dale says. It may sound simple, but it is recognized as the foremost program on energy evaluation of poultry feeds in the Western hemisphere.
But what good is all that knowledge if people don't know about it? In the poultry industry, the scientific journals reveal valuable information to other scientists. But what about those commercial nutritionists out there?
Eight years ago, Dale and several extension colleagues decided a need existed for the Journal of Applied Poultry Research. They began the journal, which is produced quarterly at UGA by Dale and a team of reviewers and editors. Its subscribers include 1,300 scientists and industry people in 55 countries.
Dale was also active in designing a poultry course for nonpoultry majors who find themselves in the poultry industry. The course is offered each winter at the Georgia Center in Athens as a follow-up to the giant poultry trade show in Atlanta.
That chance meeting with wife Beatriz has also proven successful for Dale. The couple recently celebrated their 25th anniversary and are the proud parents of two sons. Peter just graduated from UGA with a degree in public relations and has accepted an internship at the National 4-H Center in Washington, D.C. Younger son, Nicholas, will enter UGA in August.
So what's a New Yorker doing feeding chickens and raising a family in Georgia? For Nick Dale, he's just following the plan.
