Glen Dolezal has been involved in livestock his entire life, and he has been an innovator and earned the respect of his peers.
Still, the Cargill Protein executive and meat scientist said in accepting the Industry Achievement Award on Aug. 20 that there were many influencers to his career. Dolezal, of Wichita, accepted the award from Certified Angus Beef as part of the Feeding Quality Forum in Dodge City, Kansas. In the photo above, Dolezal, at left, received the Industry Achievement Award from John Stika on Aug. 20 at Certified Angus Beef’s Feeding Quality Forum in Dodge City, Kansas, in a Journal photo taken by Dave Bergmeier.
Dolezal said the success was only possible because of a strong family, his relationship with mentors, university professors at Texas A&M, Colorado State University and Oklahoma State University and leaders at Cargill.
Dolezal said his father had a livestock processing operation in Texas, and that’s where he learned the value of hard work and building a relationship with each customer. An opportunity to hone his skills came at Texas A&M, where he was a member of the college’s judging team and later became a coach, too. After completing his doctorate at Colorado State, his career took him to Oklahoma State University in 1983, and he stayed there for 16 years. An opportunity unexpectedly occurred in 1999 when another mentor, Del Allen, called him and asked Dolezal to consider leaving academia to go to Cargill.
At the time, Dolezal was a tenured professor, and leaving a university to go to the private sector carried personal risk, but the opportunity as outlined by Allen and the Cargill team sold him.
Dolezal is driven by decisions that ultimately raise value of beef, and he said that benefits the entire beef chain.
He praised Cargill’s leadership and co-workers throughout the operation.
“It’s a team. You don’t accomplish anything by yourself,” he said.
Presenter John Stika, president of Certified Angus Beef, said Dolezal had set a high bar. He wanted to capture more value, and among his achievements was the boxed beef calculator. First developed during his time at Oklahoma State, the calculator took the beef cuts with their known percent yields and yield grades and back calculated the price to provide a better snapshot of the value overall.
Cargill Meat Solutions continues to use the calculator.
Dolezal later collaborated with Nebraska Angus rancher Bill Rishel to help beef producers, according to a story from Certified Angus Beef.
In CAB’s story about Dolezal, it stated, “The rancher wanted to evaluate his own sire evaluation program, but he needed Dolezal’s help. Using Rishel’s progeny information that included carcass merit, Dolezal ran ribeye area, yield grade, back-fat thickness, marbling and quality through the boxed beef calculator. The results were favorable, pointing to sires with the potential to sire calves that would yield more dollars in a value-based marketing system.”
Stika said Dolezal, for all his accolades, remains grounded by being a good listener, and when he makes a decision it is based on reason and sound science. His Cargill accomplishments are many, but Stika said Dolezal continues to be an advocate for and trusted ally of ranchers, feeders and feedlot managers.
“When Glen speaks, people want to listen,” Stika said. “He is the voice of reason and optimism.”
Stika used the term GOAT, which stands for “greatest of all time” and is often associated with top professional stars such as basketball player Michael Jordan and quarterback Tom Brady. Stika said Dolezal belongs in the class of greatest of all time in the meat industry. He said the industry is better because of his intellect, his ability to communicate and his relentless desire for objectivity that is based in data and research.
Dave Bergmeier can be reached at 620-227-1822 or [email protected].
