About The Presenter

Dr. Hollister’s educational background includes a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry - minor in Psychology, and a M.S. from Colorado State University in animal science doing nutrition research with chickens, ducks and pheasants.  The pheasant research involved the measuring of the effects of diet formulation on feathering, body composition and flying ability - as measured by hand-held Radar.

His Ph.D. at Oregon State University in poultry nutrition involved research comparing the performance of chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese as affected by diet energy, fiber and direct-fed microbials.

Al has been involved with poultry and other livestock since childhood.  Poultry-related employment experience includes:

-          Operating a small hatchery and poultry farm selling many breeds and varieties of chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, pheasant, quail, and other small livestock.

-          An internship with a large, fully integrated, broiler producer provided exposure in the areas of: chick production, grow out, feed production, quality assurance, research and processing. 

-          Research Microbiologist at USDA/ARS where he tested and selected bacterial cultures for Salmonella colonization control in chickens and turkeys, and developed practical storage and delivery methods for these cultures. The resulting product is the only probiotic product that was FDA approved to make the claim for Salmonella control.

-          Technical Services Nutritionist at Dawe’s Laboratories providing management and technical service support to Dawe’s worldwide sales staff and customers, with emphasis on Dawe’s line of nutrition-related products, such as vitamin-mineral premixes, water dispersible vitamins, electrolytes, probiotics, hatchling supplements and specialty products.  Dawe’s also provides ration formulations and custom vitamin premix formulations for poultry, all livestock and aquaculture species, pets and exotics.  Al especially enjoys field work – seeing where the nutrition goes, solving problem and designing products that solve problems.

“Spare-time” interests include a nut and fruit orchard, vegetable gardening, old muscle cars, woodworking, and photography.