Popular Pig

About the Guest Joseph Kerns, President of Partners for Production Agriculture, has thirty years’ experience working with producers, suppliers, and mills to support agricultural operations. He leads a team of professionals with the purpose of understanding the financial parameters around agricultural markets so that those that he works with can thrive and prosper. Bill Even is the Chief Executive...

About the Guest Anne manages Invariant’s agriculture and food practice, bringing 20 years of substantive policy experience in the sector.  For their field-to-fork clients, She provides regulatory guidance, crafts policy solutions, and deploys innovative engagement plans for Congress and the Administration. Anne spent four years at the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the Obama Admin...

About the Guest John Wesley Hairr is the Recruiter with Murphy Family Ventures. He leads the recruiting efforts for the company engaging with students, faculty and staff at colleges, universities, and also high schools to attract new hires to the company. Prior to taking his role as Recruiter, John Wesley was a Farm Manager for Murphy Family Ventures. He understands the importance agriculture has...

About the Guest After studying in the University of Lleida School of Agri-food and Forestry Science and Engineering, Oscar worked as a production manager in different large sow farms for 3 year. 22 years ago, joined Rotecna, where he has had the chance to cooperate with pig production and farm construction companies in more than 80 countries. Rotecna develops and manufactures innovative solutions...

About the Guest Chris Grant is the President of Innovative Heating Technologies (IHT) out of Winnipeg, MB Canada. After a 15 year career managing plastic manufacturing that moved him around the country, he was looking for a change in life and career. In 2013 he took the leap and partnered with Matt Robins by purchasing IHT. By combining their plastics and electrical backgrounds, they were able to...

About the Guest Mr. John Quackenbush is the Chief Commercial Officer at Minitube USA, Inc based in Verona WI.  After a 13-year career managing boar studs for Zoltenko Farms in Kansas, John moved to Wisconsin to work in Reproduction Sales.  In November of 2015, John led the startup of Minitube USA, in Delavan WI, a subsidiary of Minitube International.  In October of 2018, Minitube USA purchased th...

About the Guest Bill Luckey — Nebraska Bill Luckey, a fourth-generation farmer, owns a wean-to-finish operation in Columbus, Nebraska, and is a part-owner of a sow farm. Bill is responsible for the daily care of 740 nursery pigs and 1,400 finisher pigs. In addition, his family operates a 2,000 head custom contract finisher and markets 10,000 pigs annually. He also grows corn, soybeans and cattle o...

About the Guest From vegetable farm manager to global ISO auditor, David then moved into the poultry sector when he purchased a UK broiler farm in 2004 and continues to operate a contract poultry farm management company in the UK. In 2018, David founded OPTIFarm. OPTIfarm is a very unique data driven support service, currently for poultry and swine, assessing real time farm data against animal beh...

About the Guest Gary Asay, Producer from Illinois and past president of NPB Gary Asay owns and manages Asay Farms, a wean-to-finish operation in Illinois that markets 9,500 hogs annually. He also raises corn and soybeans. Gary most recently served on the Illinois Pork Producers Association board of directors and was a director for the National Pork Producers Council. He is an Operation Main Street...

About the Guest Dr. John Sonderman, PhD, PAS Director of Technical Services for DNA Genetics, a provider of swine genetics to the commercial swine industry in North America, Spain, and Brazil. His duties include oversight of technical support to commercial customers and multipliers in North America, the North American nucleus herds and boar studs, and collaboration on research. He also provides co...

About the Guests Dr. Clayton Johnson is a veterinarian at Carthage Veterinary Service, Ltd. located in Carthage, Illinois. He is one of eleven veterinarians dedicated to the swine veterinary practice. Carthage Veterinary Service, Ltd. provides health, management, and production consulting to swine farms of all sizes in all regions of the United States and many locations abroad. Dr. Johnson attende...

About the Guests John started learning the ropes about pigs at the age of 11. He qualified as a veterinarian in 1982. After 5 years in general practice he returned to university to complete a Leverhulme residency in pigs and the PhD in urinary tract problems of pigs at Liverpool specialising in microbiology and pathology. He has a Diploma in Pig Medicine and is a Diplomate of the European College...

About the Guests Bob Ruth is the vice president of the National Pork Board of directors. He is the past president for Country View Family Farms, a farrow-to-finish farm with 110,000 sows. Now retired, Bob served as the senior vice president for Clemens Food Group, where he worked for 20 years. He has also served on the Pennsylvania Pork Producers Board of Directors and is an active member of PennA...

About the Guest Lifelong pig and grain farmer, Dave Klocke is the founder and President of PigEasy, LLC, a swine equipment company that provides innovative solutions to improve pigs’ well-being and boost producers’ profit potential. In 2013, Dave and his wife, Karen, founded PigEasy, LLC after Dave invented products to help other pork producers streamline production and successfully feed their ani...

About the Guest Dean Meyer is no stranger to the livestock industry, for more than 30 years, he along with his family have been farming near Rock Rapids, Iowa. He has served as chair of the Lyon County Pork Producers, president of the Farmers Elevator Co-Op, the Lyon County Extension Council, chair of the Iowa Corn Animal Ag and Environment Committee and District 1 Director of the Iowa Corn Grower...

About the Guest Kyle has a passion for teaching. He discovered this passion while working for Kaplan Test Prep as he finished his Political Science degree at Texas A&M University. He has carried this passion throughout his legal career, teaching clients as he helps them to find and understand legal pathways out of labor bottlenecks. His innovation in solving perpetual labor shortages for...

About the Guest Dave has been a veterinarian for more than 25 years and a computer programmer for more than 30. After a long period as a mixed animal vet he is now an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne with a PhD in Animal Welfare of cattle, where he undertakes research in dairy cattle medicine, reproduction and animal welfare.  He is also editor-in-chief of the Australian Veterina...

About the Guest Dr. Lowe is 1994 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine and has been working with swine production companies across the United States since that time. Dr. Lowe completed the college’s Executive Veterinary Program in Swine Health Management in 2000 and returned to campus as a student in 2002 while continuing to practice full time. In 2005 he received a...

About the Guest Dr. Amanda Reever was raised on a cattle, hog, and grain operation in Algona, IA, where she developed her interest in animal production and medicine. She received her DVM from Iowa State University in 2022, alongside a Master’s degree in Veterinary Preventive Medicine. Dr. Reever began working for Suidae right out of veterinary school, and she now resides with her husband in Manson...

About the Guest Tara is a New Mexico native, 5th generation dairy farmer, an environmental scientist, and mom of two girls. Daniel, her husband, manages all day-to-day on his family dairy farm while Tara has her own career as an environmental consultant, speaker, and online agriculture advocate. Tara began sharing her story online through her platform, New Mexico Milkmaid, because she found that p...

About the Guest Dr. Derald Holtkamp is a Professor in the Department of Veterinary Diagnostics and Production Animal Medicine (VDPAM) in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University (Ames, Iowa, U.S.). He received his DVM, MS in Agricultural Economics, and B.S. in Agricultural Business with a minor in statistics, all from Iowa State University. Prior to joining Iowa State, he was a...

About the Guest Joseph Kerns, President of  Partners for Production Agriculture , has thirty years’ experience working with producers, suppliers, and mills to support agricultural operations. He leads a team of professionals with the purpose of understanding the financial parameters around agricultural markets so that those that he works with can thrive and prosper. What can you expect to learn on...

About the Guest From vegetable farm manager to global ISO auditor, David then moved into the poultry sector when he purchased a UK broiler farm in 2004 and continues to operate a contract poultry farm management company in the UK. In 2018, David founded OPTIFarm. OPTIfarm is a very unique data driven support service, currently for poultry and swine, assessing real time farm data against animal beh...

About the Guest Elizabeth Rumley is a senior staff attorney at the National Agricultural Law Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas. At the Center, her primary research and scholarship focus is on legal issues in animal agriculture, and she frequently lectures on those issues and others to audiences nationwide. She has co-taught a course covering “Animals and Agricultural Production, Law and Policy” at...

About the Guest Emily Erickson grew up on a small, diversified livestock and crop farm near Dundee, MN.  Her parents bought their farm in the early ’80’s, right as the farm crisis hit.  Her dad raised pigs outdoors, a farrow to finish operation of about 100 sows at the time, and also farmed corn, soybeans and usually oats, for bedding. Emily graduated from South Dakota State University...