Michael Thonney

Professor Thonney passed away on April 23, 2021 following a short illness.  He was a very popular teacher and highly dedicated to students.  He reinvented the Cornell Sheep Program, established a dairy sheep flock on campus, and launched projects related to the use of sheep to manage vegetation in solar installation sites. These projects continue.  More information is available at the Cornell Chronicle article below. 

Those who wish to contribute to a student award in his name may do so here at the Animal Science Excellence Fund.

~ Please make a note that your gift is in memory of Mike Thonney. ~

Michael L. Thonney earned graduate degrees at the University of Minnesota and first joined the faculty in Animal Science at Cornell University in 1975. He was promoted to Professor in 1988. He has taught courses in introductory animal science, beef cattle, sheep, and the biology of growth. Research interests have ranged from the relationship of mature size to body composition and growth of cattle and sheep to vaccination of sheep. He has taken sabbatical leaves at the Animal Breeding Research Organisation (Edinburgh, Scotland, 1984), University of California (Davis, 1993), Massey University (New Zealand, 2003), and Washington State University (2012). His current research revolves around nutrition and management of milking ewes in short and frequent lactations.