Harold Gonyou has filled many roles in his professional life and is no stranger to recognition for his contributions to agriculture.
His most recent recognition came in August when he was inducted as an Honorary Fellow of the International Society for Applied Ethology.
The retired Prairie Swine Centre researcher’s induction marks only the 16th time that the award has been presented to a person in his field in the society’s 45 years.
The ISAE focuses on the welfare and behaviour of domesticated and confined animals.
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Most of Gonyou’s work has been on the social behaviour of farm animals and in recent years has focused more sharply on the study of sows in group housing.
He said little work was being done on animal behaviour in North America when he started in the field of ethology.
His interest in animals began as a child growing up on a mixed farm in western Ontario. He remembers being curious about the farm’s cattle, pigs, sheep and horses.
Majoring in animal science at the University of Guelph was a natural choice because of this interest and familiarity with farm animals.
After completing his undergraduate studies in 1974, he pursued a masters degree at the University of Alberta. Once again, his interest in animals played a significant role in his choice to focus on the behavioural and physiological responses of feedlot cattle to winter conditions.
Gonyou also studied the ways feedlot bulls responded to winter conditions for his PhD thesis at the University of Saskatchewan.
Gonyou has been working at the Saskatoon centre part time since his retirement, but he still keeps busy with work in ethology.
He works in his office at the centre an average of four hours per week and assists three graduate students and two post doctoral students with research projects.
In addition, he will conduct five lectures in animal behaviour at the centre this fall.
Gonyou is also committed to writing articles focusing on group housing of sows for the centre over the next two years.
“I have enjoyed my career a great deal,” said Gonyou as he reflected on his long career in animal agriculture.
However, these days he is spending much of his time golfing, gardening, volunteering and travelling.
He said research has been the most rewarding part of his career, but he also enjoyed working with graduate students and helping them develop their critical thinking.
Swine centre president Lee Whittington believes Gonyou’s recent award is significant because it is a recognition by the ethology community that his “work has had real and lasting impact on the commercial pork industry.”
Whittington remembers the impact Gonyou’s research into feeder designs had on the industry in the 1990s.
He said Gonyou’s study of feeder designs identified factors that affected pig production if the feeder was not properly designed.
Gonyou then suggested ways to modify pigs’ feeding environment to improve the feed intake of pigs.
Whittington said feeder manufacturers took note of Gonyou’s research and believes it helped promote the use of the wet dry feeder design that has become the standard for feeders in the pork industry.
He also believes Gonyou has foreseen the needs of the pork industry throughout his carrier. Whittington said the industry often consults him on sow housing issues.
Gonyou was also a professor at the University of Illinois, president of the International Society for Applied Ethology, editor-in-chief for the scientific journalApplied Animal Behaviour Scienceand served on committees for the Canadian Pork Council and National Pork Board in the United States.
In 2009, Gonyou received the Award for Technical Innovation Enhancing Production of Safe and Affordable Food from the Canadian Society of Animal Science.
His recent research projects include feeder and waterer design, group housing of sows, gestation stall design, space allowance of pigs, large groups of grow-finish pigs and pig handling.
