David Black

David is Managing Director of Paragon Veterinary Group, a two centre, 18 vet, mixed practice in Cumbria.  His main clinical interest is in dairy practice, gaining his Diploma in Bovine Reproduction in 1998, and becoming an RCVS Recognised Specialist in Cattle Health and Production in 2003. He recently achieved his DVetMed (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) at Nottingham University, based on cattle advanced breeding and the effects of minerals on cattle fertility.

Although he has, after 12 years, recently retired from the Board of XLVets, a group of independent veterinary practices who work collaboratively together to deliver “Excellence in Practice”, he is still closely involved with several projects.

He is Managing Director of Activf-ET, an exciting new consortium delivering advanced breeding technologies to the UK cattle industry and beyond, which resulted from two recently completed Innovate UK supported projects, partnering with Semex and the Universities of Nottingham and Kent, working on ovum pickup (OPU), in-vitro production (IVP) of embryos and genomic analysis of embryos in cattle.

He is Senior Independent Director of the Veterinary Defence Society (VDS), treasurer of, and representative of the UK on the committee of the World Association for Buiatrics, and is a member of the Dairy Science Forum.