Dan Schaefer was born and raised on a diversified livestock farm (beef cattle, hogs and chickens) near Kewaskum, WI. His interest in beef cattle was spawned by on-farm cattle-feeding responsibilities and his 4-H projects. His WLA high school classmate, Jerry Huth, further stimulated Dan’s interest in beef cattle, and recruited Dan to the Meat & Animal Science B.S. program at UW-Madison. Dan completed his B.S. in 1973 and then continued with Professor Robert Kauffman for an M.S. degree which was completed in 1975. By this time, Dan had discovered his dual professional interests in ruminant nutrition and rumen microbiology, and those interests led him to the University of Illinois to study under the co-mentorship of Dr. Carl Davis and Dr. Marvin Bryant. Dr. Schaefer determined the ammonia concentration required for maximal growth rate by several predominant species of anaerobic rumen bacteria and completed his PhD in Nutritional Sciences in 1979. 

Dan and his family moved to West Lafayette, IN in 1979 so he could begin his assistant professorship in the Department of Animal Sciences at Purdue University. Dan was hired to develop a teaching and research program in rumen microbiology and basic ruminant nutrition. However in 1981, Dan was recruited by Professors N. J. Benevenga and Bob Kauffman to return to the Meat & Animal Science Department at Wisconsin, which he did.

His responsibilities included development of teaching and research programs. His teaching focused on beef cattle production in the B.S. and Farm & Industry Short Course programs, and rumen microbiology at the graduate student level. His research program encompassed a wide array of beef cattle research and anaerobic microbiology projects. Simultaneously, he provided academic advising service to Animal Sciences undergraduates. These responsibilities were essentially maintained from 1981 until his retirement from UW-Madison in 2019. Working with young people provided a huge array of professional development experience.

Dan served as Chairman of the Animal Sciences Department from 1999 to 2016, with a short excursion as Interim Associate Dean in CALS for Undergraduate Academic Programs. Leadership has always been a professional passion for Dan, so this experience was a rewarding one. To his great satisfaction, a successful leadership initiative was approval and construction of the Meat Science & Animal Biologics Discovery (MSABD) building, a replacement for the 1930 Meat Science Laboratory. Dan served as the first Director of MSABD during 2018 and 2019, and was responsible for designing the program in the new building.

Dr. Schaefer was blessed to spend the core of his professional career working with livestock people and livestock topics. Schaefer Beef Consulting is now an extension of this professional passion.