Lloyd Ernest Peterson

Lloyd Ernest Peterson was born in Decatur, Arkansas on October 3, 1912. He attended school in Decatur and graduated from high school in 1930. He decided to stay in Decatur and go into business related to agricultural products. In 1939, he started a small flock of 500 Rhode Island Red chicks to produce broilers. In 1946 he started to develop synthetic lines by combining several strains of broiler type chickens. In early years, his emphasis was to breed and develop male lines leaving the female line breeding to other breeders. However, as Peterson entered into international markets, he started the emphasis on full fledged breeding programs involving male line, female line, color sex, dwarf and other major gene lines. Peterson was a renowned breeder on the international scene for nearly three decades. As a primary breeder he was probably the first to recognize feed efficiency as a separate heritable trait and allotted significant time and resources to improve this trait. Because of his interest in animal agriculture, Mr. Peterson started in beef cattle breeding in the mid 1960s. His efforts proved successful in developing the best herd in the United States for Polled strain of Santa Gertrudis cattle. He applied the same principles of breeding to cattle as he did to broiler lines. Mr. Peterson was an active member in many organizations, among them were Arkansas Poultry Federation, National Broiler Council, Southeastern Poultry & Egg Association, Poultry Breeder of America, Poultry Science Association, American Genetics Association and Genetics Society of America. Mr. Peterson was selected Man of the Year by the Arkansas Poultry Federation in 1957. Mr. Peterson was a dedicated contributor to his community. His Peterson Industries was a major employer in the Decatur area. He was also a supporter of youth in Benton County, furnishing most of the funds for a new gymnasium for the Decatur school, and he was one of the largest supporters of the Junior Livestock sale at the Benton County Fair.