Dale A. Blasi was born and reared on his family’s farm and ranch in southeast Colorado, near Trinidad. He received his B.S. in Animal Sciences at Colorado State University in 1984. In 1986, he received his M.S. in Beef Systems Management at Colorado State University. He continued his education at the University of Nebraska where his dissertation addressed protein supplementation strategies for beef cows and growing cattle.

After earning his Ph.D. degree in 1989, he accepted an appointment as a Livestock Specialist in South Central Kansas at Hutchinson for Kansas State University. While there, he focused on cow/calf and stocker nutrition and management strategies, forage quality and harvest efficiency, forage utilization systems and utilization of food industry byproducts. In 1997, he transitioned to the Department of Animal Sciences and Industry at Kansas State University as a State Beef Specialist where he currently has a 10% teaching, 20% research and 70% extension appointment. His responsibilities include providing statewide Extension educational leadership in stocker cattle nutrition and management and utilization of grazed and harvested forages by beef cattle and other livestock, conducting research and interpreting results and serving as a resource person for other state and area specialists, county Extension agents, producers and allied industry personnel.  In recent years Dr. Blasi has developed and teaches the class, ASI 650, Identification and Data Management of Food Animals, to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Since 1998, he has developed and evaluated information and management applications using handheld computers and individual animal electronic identification technologies for the beef industry. He is manager and director of the KSU Beef Stocker Unit and Animal Identification Knowledge Laboratory, a unique facility designed to evaluate the performance of existing and emerging animal identification technologies in a laboratory and animal management setting.