Jim McKenzie, Area Sales Manager in Premier Select Sires’ southern region, retires on May 1, 2025 after 42 years of dedicated service. Please join us in thanking him for his contributions to our cooperative!

Jim began working for Virginia-North Carolina Select Sires (VA-NC SS) on July 1, 1983. VA-NC SS would later undergo several mergers, eventually leading to the Premier Select Sires cooperative.

As Jim says, his “whole life has been centered around agriculture.” As a teenager, he helped his grandfather farm while keeping a string of show heifers and hogs as FFA projects. He co-oped at a regional feed mill while in high school. He attended The Ohio State University and garnered two majors while working at the university dairy farm and farm show. After graduation, Jim taught vocational agriculture in Forest, VA for two years. He then accepted his position as a field supervisor for VA-NC SS. Jim worked in sales throughout his career, while also being involved with A.I. trainings, helping at field events, assisting evaluators with matings, etc.

Jim has achieved several awards over the years, including the Select Sires President’s Club award and recognitions from the NAAB. Over his career he has sold over 900,000 units of semen.

“It has been a pleasure getting to know and work with Jim over my short tenure here at Premier.  Jim’s passion and dedication to his customer base is a way of life for him and it shows in how he performs for our member-owners,” said Brad Barham, Southern Regional Sales Manager for Premier. “Dairy and beef alike, he does his best to deliver high value genetics and thoroughly enjoys the outcomes…as do his customers! I’m happy for Jim in this life transition, but I hate to lose the decades of knowledge and expertise he takes with him. I just hope he calls from time to time to ‘speak plain’ to me.”

Jim says that the best part his career has been the relationships he’s formed with customers and coworkers.

“You make lifelong friends out of customers, and you look forward to going to see them,” said Jim. “I was also fortunate to have a crew of people within the company I worked closely with for many years, and it was always great being able to call them, seeing everyone at conferences, and working together.”

Jim says he has seen many changes to the industry over his tenure, but he wouldn’t change his experience for anything.

“When I was a kid, I would have paid to get to do the things I had the opportunity to do in my job. I will miss the traveling, I will miss the camaraderie, and I will miss my customers,” said Jim. “I am a rich man—and I don’t mean monetarily—I am rich with experiences and friends I met along the way.”

In retirement, Jim says his herd of 50 cows will keep him busy. He looks forward to traveling more and watching his son, who is director of the Center for Appalachian Studies, at his musical performances. In Jim’s words, he will be “traveling, tinkering, and kickin’ back while still keeping a herd of black cows.”

Thank you, Jim, for all that you have brought to our cooperative!

 

Photo: Jim at 15 years old showing a Holstein senior calf at his local fair