The Swine it Podcast Show

“You can have a state-of-the-art research facility or even the best ideas in the world. But if you don't have a good research staff at the slat level you don't have much. It's about people, and the role of the research staff is to accurately collect data at the farm and transfer that information timely to key stakeholders.” – Dr. Aaron Gaines . Today’s episode will cover “ Driving Inno...

“Part of what I understand is happening is the foodservice buy bellies at 40 lb boxes. That stops. Retail goes in 1-lb packages. The system isn't geared up to do all those 1-lb packages. It's a redistribution. And that's is just an example of the challenge we have.” – Jim Long . Today’s episode will cover “ Global economy right now and how that affects pig producers” . Our guest is Jim...

“Really just driving home how important it is to practice social distancing even at the farm... Maybe that means staggering the start of the shift for each staff member as well as the break time so they are not congregating in the break room.” – Dr. Heather Fowler . Today’s episode will cover “ COVID-19 pandemic and its repercussions for pig producers” . Our guest is Dr. Heather Fowler. Dr. Fowler...

I wanted to introduce you to the Swine.it Podcast Roundtable . This is a new series of episodes envisioned by Provimi and Swine.it , where we will have bonus episodes in a roundtable format with experts of the global swine industry tackling subjects that can influence the producer’s bottom line. On this first episode, I chatted with Dr. Chad Pilcher and Mark Hulsebus, both from Provimi, about “Pig...

“[…] There was no collaboration, tremendous conflict of interest and led to the quotation from the late Dr. Mike Murtaugh that “veterinary science is an oxymoron”. That was clearly true. It was very depressing. I am glad that has improved and we have seen improvement across many fronts.” – Dr. Scott Dee . Today’s episode will cover “ Swine veterinary applied research: the last 30 years and what th...

“Most everybody got a competitive genetics and nutrition program. I know there are differences out there, but I don't see the differences in those areas of pig production being nearly as drastic as I see the differences in health from one producer to another.” – Dr. Clayton Johnson . Today’s episode will cover “ Impact of Health in Pig Production and Using Modeling for Decision-Making” . Our g...

“If we want to make improvements in mortality as an industry, certainly science we need to continue to advance that ask the quality of research questions to learn more as an industry, but I think an important part of it that sometimes slips our mind is understanding the people aspect of it, and the importance that the people within our production systems have on the overall performance of our syst...

“If ingredients are expensive, we may be wasting our money if we focus on maximizing diet density because it may not pay for the investment. Our recommendations, normally, are not to reach maximum biological potential but it’s based on economics.” – Dr. Justina Caldas . Today’s episode will cover “ Nutritionist’s role in a genetic company” . Our guest is Dr. Justina Caldas. Dr. Caldas got her bach...

“I always try to suggest to people, you don't want boars eating too little feed because you'll hurt semen production. Also, you don't want boars to get overfed so that they're fat, it decreases their locomotion ability, it decreases their jump time on the artificial insemination dummies. [From a body condition standpoint] we don't want to get on the extremes, we want to be as m...

“(…) not the kind of animal we wanted to put into a farrowing house because she would be more likely to crush her litter and not effectively comfortably fit in the stall. We started to transition away from the back fat because as we looked at that female and really spend some time with her, the reality was that she was a leaner derived female and yet we were treating her like she was more fat and...

“No one really cared about the whole to found ASF research when it was on Africa. And now that’s in many countries that are major pig producers, it’s a big concern for everybody.” – Dr. Douglas Gladue . Today’s episode will cover “ ASF vaccine: light at the end of the tunnel?” . Our guests are Dr. Douglas Gladue and Dr. Manuel Borca , both from the USDA, and they will share the latest developments...

“How much prevention you want to put in place? It is just how much risk is one willing to take. And a lot of factors determine that... if we think about the modes of transportation and think about each route of entry can be giving risk level, depending on the phase of production, geography, and other production system characteristics.” – Dr. Jessica Risser . Today’s episode will cover “ PRRS: From...

“Most of the regulations that the New Welfare Code is asking us to do, 95% of the producers are already doing that. The only one that will need some time [to figure it out] is the banning of the farrowing crates… they stated only the intentions for that, we do not know when it’s going to happen.” – Sebastián Casiró . Today’s episode will cover “ UK pig production trends” . Our guest is Sebastián C...

“If I had a crystal ball, I think we are going to see a lot of animal scientists and tech companies trying to solve problems together. I cannot make an algorithm; I am an animal scientist so I think there is a lot of room for collaboration.” – Dr. Ashley DeDecker . Today’s episode will cover “ Impactful, repeatable, and applied research in swine production” . Our guest is Dr. Ashley DeDecker , the...

Today’s episode will cover “ Sow cooling strategies” . “The true upper critical temperature of our modern sow nursing 14 pigs it is right at 18oC, and it may be cooler than 18oC. Anyone that runs their farrowing house hotter than 18oC is already overheating the sow.” – Dr. Allan Schinckel . Our guest is Dr. Allan Schinckel . Dr. Schinckel is a faculty member in the Animal Science Department at Pur...

“Your learning has not stopped when you left college, does not stop when you finish your training program, does not stop when you finish whatever it is you’ve done... even if you are in your 30s, 40s, 50s, or 60s, you have to continue to improve your skills and prepare for the future… which is going to be extremely competitive.” – Aidan Connolly . Our guest is Aidan Connolly , another bright mind...

Today’s episode will cover “ One of the most important decisions in swine production: dietary energy level” . “If you get dietary energy right you can keep your costs as low as possible… but if you get your energy wrong, you can affect performance and net income in a negative way.” – Dr. John Patience . Our guest is Dr. John Patience , another bright mind of the Global Swine Industry. Dr. Patience...

Today’s episode will cover “ Food production misconceptions and social media experiences” . “[…] He gently laid her head down… he got out of the tractor, moved her head around like if she was gently sleeping. That is the type of culture we need to have on our farms. We have so much respect for these animals even after death, that we are still treating them with that dignity and that respect. If th...

Today’s episode will cover “ A simple tool that is changing swine production around the globe” . “If you have fat, over-conditioned, sows you're burning a lot of money in feed costs and you're also going to have poor reproductive throughput.” – Dr. Mark Knauer . Our guest is Dr. Mark Knauer , another bright mind of the Global Swine Industry. Dr. Knauer is Swine Extension Specialist at Nort...

Today’s episode will cover “ Human capital in pig farms: issues and solutions” . “We need to learn how to help ordinary people do extraordinary things on these farms. Meaningful work is one of the best therapeutic solutions for folks.” – Jonathon Hoek . Our guest is Jonathon Hoek , another bright mind of the Global Swine Industry. Mr. Hoek has extensive swine production experience and is director...

Today’s episode will cover the Evolution of the Australian pork industry and research of global interest . “The single diet concept suggests that rather than having 5 phases from 20- to 110-kg, you can actually save costs without affecting performance just using 1 diet that might be formulated for a pig at 70- to 77-kg but fed all the way through.” – Dr. Roger Campbell . Our guest is Dr. Roger Cam...

Today’s episode will cover Pork Fat Quality and Diet Formulation: Lessons learned and the impact over the last 40 years . “The more fat you feed a pig… the more it looks like the fat that you feed it.” – Dr. Jeff Hansen . Our guest is Dr. Jeff Hansen , another bright mind of the Global Swine Industry. Dr. Hansen graduated with an M.S. from Texas A&M and Ph. D. in Swine Nutrition from Kansas St...

Today’s episode will cover Tackling emerging diseases with producer-driven monitoring systems . “If we have an ASF outbreak tomorrow… Just having the [disease monitoring] system up and being able to communicate in a timely matter [is essential].” – Dr. Andreia Arruda. Our guest is Dr. Andreia Arruda , another bright mind of the Global Swine Industry. Dr. Arruda is a veterinarian with a Masters fro...

Today’s episode will cover the Importance of feed execution and how a production nutritionist values it . “Our main goal, as swine nutritionists, is to get the right feed, to the right place, at the right time.” – Dr. Kyle Coble. Our guest is Dr. Kyle Coble , another bright mind of the Global Swine Industry. Dr. Coble is a Swine Nutritionist for JBS, USA, and before that worked for New Fashion Por...

Today’s episode will cover Thoughts on Pigs and People . “Everyone wants to hire more people but it is actually the backdoor that is the problem because people are leaving about as fast as you can hire them. If you can ever get the backdoor fixed, the front door is not a big of an issue.” – Dr. Larry Coleman. Our guest is Dr. Larry Coleman , another bright mind of the Global Swine Industry. Dr. Co...