Located ten miles from the LAX Airport in southern California lives a dairy industry giant. John Schouten grew up on his family’s dairy farm in Torrance. The Schouten family would later move 100 miles east of Los Angles when John was ten, to the town of San Jacinto, where his father and two of his brothers partnered in a dairy for more than 25 years. This dairy upbringing not only further generated an interest in the dairy industry, but also propelled the retired CEO of World Wide Sires (WWS) to travel the globe and be remembered for his vital role in U.S. dairy semen exports.
His endless devotion to global bovine genetics helped Schouten earn the honors of the 2022 Dairy Shrine Guest of Honor award. The annual award represents the highest level of recognition from the Dairy Shrine and recognizes exemplary dairy leaders for their accomplishments and contributions to the dairy industry.
Early Days
After graduating from Cal Poly with a dairy science degree, Schouten moved back to the family dairy farm that was already milking 2,000 cows in the mid 1980’s.
Schouten’s future boded well after college. He spent three years at his family’s dairy, then worked for the late John Te Velde Dairy as their herd manager. Schouten also spent a short stint in Alaska, helping develop the state’s dairy industry.
A California guy, Schouten made his way back to the golden state and was fortunate to land a position at WWS, based at the Cal Clark Dairy Farm in Hanford at the time.
“Bill Clark and Rich Denier told me that if I liked the dairy industry, I liked working with people and interested in the international side of things, that there was no better place to be,” says Schouten. “After 35 years at WWS, I completely agree, as it has been an incredible adventure.”
His WWS journey started as a marketing assistant but quickly transitioned to the area director of marketing and his territory included Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Poland.
During the time, WWS was the exclusive distributor for all the U.S. A.I. cooperatives for the countries outside of America. In 2001, Schouten was appointed CEO after the Clark family sold WWS to Select Sires and Accelerated Genetics.
“I am grateful for Dave Thorbahn and Roper Ripley for hiring me to take on this role,” Schouten adds.
With Accelerated Genetics merge into Select Sires in 2017, WWS became a wholly owned subsidiary of Select Sires.
“I’m so proud to work with a company that has farmer ownership as its grassroots,” he says.
Schouten speaks volumes about the people he has worked with over the years in the U.S. and around the globe. He contributes working with outstanding people that share a common passion and interest to help make better cows as a key ingredient for success and happiness.
Over the last three decades, Schouten has seen a lot of consolidation. When he began at WWS 35 years ago, there were 11 co-op organizations that supplied products to WWS. Today, Select Sires is the only U.S. co-op that remains intact.
Keepsake Memories
During his 35 years at WWS, Schouten has traveled extensively worldwide, with approximately 240 overseas trips. With WWS exporting semen to nearly 100 countries today, Schouten has enjoyed visiting farms around the globe and meeting with dairy industry leaders in various countries.
“Though we speak different languages and have different customs, there is a kindred spirit of those working in the dairy industry that is universal,” Schouten says.
Collectively the big task of feeding the world is on the shoulders of dairy producers and dairy industry leaders around the globe; a responsibility that Schouten takes seriously. “Making better cows to help feed the world more efficiently is certainly a great thing to be involved with,” he says.
Senior Vice President of international sales and product management of WWS, Scott Ruby states, “It is John’s strength of character and compassion for others that makes him a great leader. Our extreme growth over the last 20 years can be directly attributed to the strong ties that John has developed, both externally and internally, which have led to the development of so many successful distribution teams around the world and so many long-term tenured employees at World Wide Sires.”
Schouten will receive the Guest of Honor award at the Dairy Shrine awards banquet on October 3 in Madison, Wisconsin. His portrait will then be displayed in the Dairy Shrine Dairy Hall of Fame and Museum in Fort Atkinson, Wis.
