Popular Pig

About the Guest Dave DeVries is a third-generation farmer from Drayton, Ontario, Canada. With his wife Lauren, they operate Zeldenrust Farms Ltd.,  a farrow to finish hog farm, producing hogs for the Raised Without Antibiotics market. Dave and Lauren have been blessed with four boys ages 6 years, 4 years, and 8-month-old twins. It has been a joy to watch the boys take a keen interest in agric...

About the Guest Drew Mogler is the public policy director of the Iowa Pork Producers Association, a position he has held since 2018. He previously served as IPPA’s producer outreach director and producer education director. As the public policy director, Drew administers state legislative programs and environmental regulatory activity, as well as supporting national legislative efforts. He wo...

About the Guest Rebecca Barton is a third-generation hog farmer on a 4500 sow farrow to finish operation founded in 1958 in Michigan. She has worked through multiple transitions during her career, first overseeing the farm’s transition from outside to inside open pen gestation, as well as a total herd repopulation in 2019. What can you learn from this episode of Popular Pig? How Rebecca Bart...

About the Guest Dr. Schinckel has conducted research to examine the potential for improvements in lean growth rate and lean feed conversion via genetic and environmental means including research in the areas of (1) development swine compositional growth curves; (2) modeling of the impact of health status and ractopamine on pig compositional growth; (3) development of stochastic models of pig compo...

Summary Tork Whisler is a 5th generation farmer from Washington, IA. He and his wife Tricia have two adult sons, Clay and Sawyer. In addition to their contract finishing and grain operation, Tork spent 15 years in the swine construction business with Precision Structures Inc. both as a service technician and then a salesman. He left PSI in 2015 to assume a management roll with Eichelberger Farms....

Summary Victor Munsen has a degree in Biology from Johns Hopkins University, and an MBA in Operations and Technology Management from The University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has been a consultant to technology start-ups and established pharmaceutical companies. His expertise is in the validation of computer and technology systems for pharmaceutical companies trying to achieve FDA approval. In 2019...

Summary Tomer Yogev  is an executive coach to leading entrepreneurs and innovators, a professor of Entrepreneurship, a sought-after board member & advisor, retired serial entrepreneur, and a self-described “business bohemian.” He is best known as one of the premier coaches in the country for entrepreneurs at The Big Joy Theory where he co-created the leading model for leadership de...

Summary Clint Schwab serves as President of Acuity, with overall fiscal and operational accountability for the business. Clint received his bachelor’s degree in animal science from Colorado State University before completing his master’s and Ph. D. degrees in animal breeding and genetics from Iowa State University, as well as an MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St....

Summary Whispering Wind Farms was the first breeder in Alberta with the sole concentration on pasture pork genetics. In 2015, Kelly Worthington and Jon Lendvoy of Whispering Wind Farms began raising the Kunekune breed which could graze and finish as efficient on forage as their 40 cow-calf pairs and grass-fed beef operation. In 2018, they grew their herd large enough to offer fresh Kunekune Pastur...

Summary Wendell Holmes Murphy was born September 23, 1938, to Holmes & Lois King Murphy of Rose Hill, North Carolina, and is the brother of Harry Daniel (Pete) Murphy and the late Joyce Murphy Minchew.  Wendell was raised in Duplin County on a farm in the Registers Crossroads area.  He graduated from Rose Hill High School in 1957, received his Bachelor of Science degree in agricultur...

Summary Dr. Chase Stahl, DVM  Chase grew up on a farm near Clarion, IA. He graduated from Clarion-Goldfield High School in 2004 and completed his undergraduate studies at Drake University in 2008 with dual degrees in Biochemistry and Environmental Science. While in the initial years of veterinary school, Chase was employed at the Iowa State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and later serv...

Summary Named among the 50 people who have made the greatest impact in the U.S. swine industry in the last 50 years, Mike Tokach, professor of animal sciences and industry, is a swine nutrition researcher and extension specialist at Kansas State University. Tokach joined K-State in 1991. In 2013, he earned the title of university distinguished professor. Tokach is the author of more than 350 artic...

Summary Bob and Kristy Walker have been in partnership for over 28 years taking on adventures ranging from parenting, youth group leaders, and authoring textbooks to taking on the challenge of a diversified farm and winery with the vision: A boundless venue for an agricultural and culinary delight. Their Walker Homestead is an 85-acre farm, field to fork farmer’s table, with gardens, orchards...

Summary P.J. Corns is a pork producer and production advisor from Iowa who currently lives near Barcelona, Spain. He is the owner of Global Swine Solutions with clients throughout Europe, Asia, and Russia. Besides the family’s Century Farm near What Cheer, Iowa that includes row crops and wean to finish operations, P.J. consults large, vertically integrated swine production systems on production o...

Summary Dr. Schneider received a DVM from Iowa State College of Veterinary Medicine in 2012. He’s been employed by Innovative Agriculture Solutions since graduation where he works with a varied group of pork producers. A large percentage of pigs Dr. Schneider sees are raised for a niche market. In addition to working with pork producers across the country, he is also engaged with his family&...

Summary Dr. Gordon Spronk is a native of the Pipestone, Minnesota agricultural community. Upon completion of his education with a DVM degree at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota in 1981, he returned to Pipestone to practice at Pipestone Veterinary Services. Dr. Spronk is a co-founder of the “ Pipestone System ” of pig production.   Dr. Spronk currently s...

Summary Phillip Hord is a fifth-generation pork producer and is continuing his family’s legacy at  Hord Family Farms , which raises hogs and cattle as well as growing the crops to feed them. As a research coordinator, he helps to find innovative ways to care for the animals like improving their diets and much more. His father, Patrick Hord, serves as president of the business, and...

Summary Wesley Lack is the Chief Operations Officer at Maximum Ag Technologies, a company founded with Larry & Dustin Reed in 2013, which serves as the US distributor of Maximus Control Systems. Prior to Maximum Ag, Wes spent 13 years working on the production side of the swine industry. Wesley has managed small and large farrow to finish systems throughout the midwest. Wes is n...

Summary Tami M. Brown-Brandl, Ph. D., is an agricultural engineer at the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Meat Animal Research Center. Dr. Brown-Brandl works in the area of animal environment and animal stress/well-being, from an engineering perspective, and has published 118 peer-reviewed journal articles. “Precision management farming is going to transform how we are managing facilitie...

Summary Shane McAuliffe is from Kerry, Ireland where his family has 2,000 sows across 4 modern sites including Ireland’s first freedom farrowing farm. He holds a Masters in Pig Health from the Royal Veterinary College in London, where he studied associations between respiratory disease status, production performance, biosecurity and antibiotic use on Irish pig farms. McAuliffe also serves as Secre...

Summary Kevin leads MSAB Capital, a corporate venture fund of Johnsonville Holdings, investing in early stage companies in life sciences and emerging technologies. Prior to leading MSAB Capital, Kevin spent 30 years at Johnsonville Sausage in various technical and business functions including Research & Development, Food Safety & Quality, Procurement, Crisis Management and Business Develop...

Summary Dr. Mark Knauer was born and raised on a pure-line pig and cattle operation in southern Wisconsin. He received his B.S. in agriculture education and M.S. in animal breeding at Iowa State University. Following his time at ISU, Mark completed his PhD in animal breeding and genetics at North Carolina State University. After graduating, Mark completed a short Postdoc at the Institute for Pig G...

Summary Dr. Tyler Holck has extensive leadership and project management experience dedicated to food animal production, primarily the pork industry, with both large international and small entrepreneurial corporations. Some of which include Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis Animal Health, NOBL Laboratories, and Iowa State University. Top Quotes from Dr. Tyler Holck “Unfortunately, whether we are talk...