This award is given annually to an individual who has provided outstanding and unselfish leadership to the Holstein Association, or dairy industry as a whole.
Often dubbed “the dean of pedigrees,” Backus is widely known and respected across the country for his knowledge of Holstein genetics and lifetime of experience in the dairy sales arena.
He began working in his father’s Backus Pedigree Office at age 15, and grew his experience until he stepped into the box as a pedigree reader for the first time 10 years later, filling in for his father, R. Austin Backus, who had fallen ill.
Following his father’s retirement, Horace and his brothers formed a company to continue the sale and pedigree business with the same values and integrity their father had instilled in them.
The business was sold in 1983, and Horace continued, as he does today, as a freelance pedigree reader. In total, he estimates he has read pedigrees at more than 3,000 sales and assisted with the preparation of more than 5,000 catalogs, each sale receiving the same special care and attention as the one before it.
Backus is also respected as an author, having written several books throughout the years, telling the story of many prolific breeding operations, and providing his personal insights on the Holstein industry. His home office is a treasure trove of Holstein memorabilia and each item is carefully catalogued to maintain the history of the breed by preserving important pieces of breed history which might have otherwise been lost.
Horace and his wife of 61 years, Doris Anne, have three children, Harry, John and Kim. A natural leader, Backus has never shied away from becoming more involved with the organizations and causes he is passionate about.
Backus has served as an elder and Sunday school superintendent at the Mexico Presbyterian Church and was a Mexico school board member for 10 years (five as president). He was elected to the Holstein Association USA board of directors in 1987, a seat which he held until 1995, and has also been involved with the association’s audit committee, and served as a delegate for New York for several years.
His extensive service and lifetime dedication to the industry has not gone unnoticed, and Backus has been honored numerous times over the course of his career, including being named World Dairy Expo’s 2010 Industry Person of the Year, and being inducted as an honorary member of the Klussendorf Association in 2003.
This year, he was the first-ever recipient of the Pennsylvania Holstein Association’s Distinguished Supporter Award.
Former HolsteinWorld publisher Joel Hastings summed up the way many view Backus by saying, “A case can be made that Horace Backus, more than any other single individual, has contributed to the growth in value of Registered Holsteins throughout his career as a sales manager, pedigree expert, association leader and adviser to hundreds in the industry. He is the epitome of all that is positive in our business, knowledge, respect and enthusiasm, with unwavering integrity in every single instance.”
My Father, Robert E. Hogarth, began managing Butterfly Farms for Horace & brother Jay Backus in 1950. Robert developed a renowned grassland farming effort which supported the impressive herd he and the Backus's developed, including world champion "Gay".
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