Popular Pig

About the Guest Jack Bobo is the author of the forthcoming book ‘Why smart people make bad food choices.’ He is also the CEO of Futurity, a food foresight company that advises companies, foundations and governments on emerging food trends and consumer attitudes and behaviors related to the future of food. Recognized by Scientific American in 2015 as one of the 100 most influential people in biotec...

About the Guest Dianne is the Human Resources Manager and Controller for LB Pork in Northrop Minnesota. In addition to the HR duties she supervises the 2 office employees, oversees the financial accounting, and wears many other hats as needed. Dianne also owns a nursery barn leased by LB Pork. Some of you may also know her children: Tyler works for NPPC as a Director of Producer Services and Maris...

About the Guest Bob Treadway is a globally-praised advisor on forecasting, strategy, and leadership development. He believes foresight and anticipation strongly enhance a leader’s effectiveness and value. He serves as top-rated faculty for industry programs in financial services, agriculture, food, telecommunications, information security, healthcare, audit, and government. Eight US and Canadian u...

About the Guest Jeff Monk has been with the Waukon Feed Ranch for 10 years and in the swine industry since 1992. The most rewarding part of his job is the fact that the industry feeds millions of people every day!  Jeff Monk What can you learn from this episode of Popular Pig? Jeff Monk’s background and how he became involved in the swine industry. The challenges that producers face when sta...

About the Guest New Fashion Pork is headquartered in Jackson, Minnesota with Brad Freking as its CEO and managing partner.  Founded in 1994, New Fashion Pork (NFP) employs over 400 people and owns 53,000 sows in six states, along with having interests in several related businesses (i.e., Triumph Foods and Daily’s Premium Meats). Annually, NFP markets roughly 1.2 million hogs.  What can you learn f...

About the Guest Canadian small business owner and professional consultant Andreas Funk has over 25 years of experience working with livestock farmers to increase livestock operation productivity. Andreas built his reputation in water treatment; with a focus on the animal’s water diet. From understanding the needs on-farm to analyzing problematic areas, Andreas’s knowl...

About the Guest Following the completion of his Doctoral Degree in Meat Science and Muscle Biology from the University of Missouri-Columbia, Dr. Chad A. Stahl founded Food Animal Consultation and Testing Services (F.A.C.T.S.). In doing so, Chad hoped to serve as a third-party scientific liaison for livestock producers, meat processors, restaurateurs, and consumers. To...

About the Guest Dr. Jim Pillen is a pig farmer, veterinarian, and the founder and chairman of Pillen Family Farms and DNA Genetics, a multi-generational family business that employs over 1,100 team members. Raised on a farm in Platte County, Pillen has spent his entire life in Nebraska production agriculture, working alongside his dad and brothers from an early age. After a successful collegiate f...

About the Guest Dr. Jason Ross is the Lloyd L. Anderson Endowed Professor in Physiology in the department of Animal Science at Iowa State University.  In October, 2015, Jason became the Director of the Iowa Pork Industry Center with responsibilities in research, administration, and extension. Jason’s research program focuses on using both basic and applied research approaches to help enable livest...

About the Guest Dr. Mark Lyons represents the second generation of the global business his father, Dr. Pearse Lyons founded in 1980. With experience working in all regions and nearly all departments — from palletizing bags in production to researching in the lab — he has a deep and uniquely personal knowledge of the company. Based on Alltech’s belief that agriculture has the greatest potenti...

About the Guest Glenn Stolt serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Christensen Farms. Glenn assumed the CEO role in November of 2012 upon the unexpected passing of Bob Christensen, founder and CEO of the company. Glenn is responsible for all strategic, operational, and financial aspects of the company. In addition, Glenn currently serves as Chairman of the Board for Triumph F...

About the Guest Dr. Kara Stewart received her bachelor’s degree from Purdue in 2001 and her Master’s and Ph. D. from NC State with Dr. Billy Flowers in 2004 and 2008, respectively. Kara taught in the Animal Science department at NC State for 2 years before returning to Indiana to work for Cook Inc., a human medical device company. In July of 2013, Kara happily accepted a faculty position in reprod...

About the Guest Matthew Wilkin is a pork producer and the owner of White Syke farm, a 2,000 sow family farm in Yorkshire, UK. He is also the inventor and co-founder of FARROPEN, which is a company that manufactures and distributes unique 360-degree farrowing pens. On White Syke Farm all of the sows are loose housed and farrowed in these 360-degree free farrowing pens designed and built in-house. M...

About the Guest Paul Willis is a 5th generation family farmer and founder of the Niman Ranch Pork Company. He has owned and operated the Willis Free Range Pig Farm in Iowa since 1975. Today he works hard to increase opportunities for traditional, sustainable and humane family farmers while representing the Niman Ranch brand. Paul’s involvement in sustainable agriculture began after he graduated fr...

About the Guest Greg graduated from the University of Iowa in 2001, with a Bachelor of Arts in economics. Greg spent the next 7 years working in his family business, a sales and marketing agency in the business products, education and janitorial markets. After exiting that business, he then moved to Atlanta where he served as the Director of Sales- Americas for a CPG company in business products,...

About the Guest Ron Ketchem graduated from the University of Missouri in 1973 with a BS in Animal Science and master studies in Reproductive Physiology and Animal Breeding. He worked 12 years for a genetic company in production, sales, and marketing and developed their AI program. He then spent 15 years in Indiana with a major feed company as a Swine Consultant providing technical support and trai...

About the Guest Robert Drew has well over 3 decades of experience that he brings with him to MAXIMUM AG in both Outdoor and Indoor sow production on a large scale. Along with establishing on-farm Quality Management Programs and Independent Consulting roles, Drew’s knowledge of group housing is a great addition for MAXIMUM AG and its customers. His first exposure to ESF technology was more than 30...

About the Guest TJ Klith is a project designer and member of the solar business development team for Trusted Energy out of Storm Lake, Iowa. He is certified by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) as a Photovoltaic (PV) Installation Professional. He has been involved in the design and/or installation of over a hundred solar energy systems for swine production facilit...

About the Guest Vivian Howard is an award-winning cookbook author, TV personality, chef, and restaurateur. Her first cookbook, Deep Run Roots: Stories & Recipes from My Corner of the South (2016), is a New York Times bestseller and was named “Cookbook of the Year” by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. She created and stars in public television shows Somewhere South and A...

About the Guest Jay has over 35 years of programming experience across a variety of domains including embedded systems, network appliances, industrial automation, Unix-based servers, as well as stand-alone applications. He also has extensive experience in both product design and system-level design and architecture for both new and legacy systems. He’s had key roles in nine startups resulting in f...

About the Guest Todd Heisterkamp was raised in a multi-generational farm family in western Iowa. Being a young man witnessing the struggles of his family during the fuel crisis of the late 1970s and the farm crisis of the early 1980s, Todd decided to choose an education and career path outside of agriculture. After having a successful 20-year career in business development and in manufacturing man...

About the Guest Mike Ellis was born and brought up in a coal mining village in the north of England.  He obtained B.S. (in Agriculture) and Ph. D. (in Applied Swine Genetics) degrees from the Department of Agriculture at the University Newcastle-Upon-Tyne where from 1978 he held the position of Lecturer in Pig Production.  He moved to the University of Illinois in 1992 where his current...

About the Guest Jim Long is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. He is responsible for the direction of Genesus, drives change and sets the strategy and vision for the company, overseeing day to day business of running and managing the company. He writes a weekly commentary on the Swine Industry that is picked up not only in English, and Chinese as well as 15...

About the Guest Kevin brings nearly 20 years of experience in financing, managing, growing, and investing in early-stage companies. Kevin brought his operational expertise in managing and growing other organizations to the Kansas Bioscience Authority (KBA) in 2013 as its Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer where he oversaw all financial, human resource, information technology, and...

About the Guest Jon Hoek grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, IL, and was inspired to Agriculture by his Grandpa.  He graduated with a degree in Agricultural Production Management in 1986.  From 1987 to 1997 he owned and operated a 550-sow farrow to finish swine operation. Jon finished a 20-year career with Belstra Milling in 2017 to start a technology company focusing on precision livestock f...