Popular Pig

Dr. Yanbin Shen is currently the Global Technical Services Director at APC, Inc. APC, Inc. is one of seven independent companies under The Lauridsen Group, Inc. and is headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa. APC was founded in 1981 and is dedicated to the research and application of blood products in animal nutrition. The company has grown into a global manufacturer and supplier of porcine, bovine plasma and hemoglobin. APC has approximately 500 employees in 9 countries and 17 manufacturing plants worldwide.

Prior to joining APC, Inc., Dr. Shen worked at Cargill Inc. in the United States. Dr. Yanbin Shen has held several positions, including global swine technology lead, innovation leader, and swine nutritionist in Cargill’s global headquarters and the US premix business. He was responsible for the research and development and promotion of swine feed and nutrition and provides technical support to large swine farms. He received his B.S. and M.S. degree from China Agricultural University (CAU) with an emphasis in Animal Science and Feed Technology. Dr. Shen received his Ph.D. in swine nutrition from North Carolina State University. Dr. Shen’s studies focused on utilization of tryptophan and methionine for pigs and broilers. Dr. Shen has authored more than 20 publications including scientific abstracts, conference proceedings, and refereed journal articles. Dr. Shen has received a Young Scholar Award and a graduate research paper award from the American Society of Animal Science. Dr. Shen is a member of the American Society of Animal Science, American Society of Nutrition, and the Poultry Science Association.

A lifelong “car guy” Brad Zimmerman began his career in event marketing which naturally gravitated towards professional motorsports. A move from California to North Carolina in the early 2000’s to be closer to the epicenter of stock car racing, Brad quickly merged his passion of cars with the growing experiential marketing industry which then dovetailed into social and digital marketing. Having worked with some of the biggest brands in the world, Brad is constantly looking ahead to contemporary trends and technologies and applying them towards present day campaigns and projects.

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 training. Ron later purchased Swine Management Services, LLC in August 2002 with Mark Rix. SMS was sold on September 30, 2019 to MetaFarms, a sow record-keeping company in Minnesota. Today, Ron consults with over 400,000 sows in the US, Canada, and Australia. Ron has been married to his wife Pam for 36 years and has 3 grown sons.

Chris Westfall is one of the most sought-after business coaches and keynote
speakers in the world. He has helped launch over five dozen businesses, and
has appeared on ABC NEWS, NBC TV and CNN. A regular contributor to
Forbes, he has worked with thousands of leaders at Fortune 500 companies,
non-profit organizations and high-tech startups. A coach to entrepreneurs and
executives around the globe, his clients have appeared on Shark Tank, Dragon’s
Den and Shark Tank-Australia. He regularly consults with top-tier universities
and is the author of four books, including Leadership Language.

Dr. Kiah Berg grew up on a small show pig farm in Oregon where she found her passion for raising and feeding pigs. She earned her BS in animal science in K-State, and continued on to pursue a MS and PhD in Applied Swine Nutrition with the K-State team. During her graduate career, she had the opportunity to conduct many large scale sow nutrition trials on commercial sow farms including Hord Livestock, New Fashion Pork, Christensen Farms and Pillen Family Farms. In May of 2020 she joined Pipestone Nutrition. Today she does the sow diet formulation for the Pipestone Managed sow farms, Sow technical service, and leads the Nutrition wean to finish research. She resides with her Husband, Andrew, in Pipestone, MN.

Casey L. Bradley was born and raised on a swine and mixed crop operation in SW Michigan. She received a B.S. in Animal Science from Michigan State University. After graduation, Casey worked for New Fashion Pork on farms in Wyoming, Minnesota, and Illinois. In 2002, Casey accepted a position at The University of Arkansas as Swine Research Manager. In addition, Casey completed her M.S. and Ph.D. in Animal Science while working for the University.

Her Masters focused on passive immunity and carry-over effects of feeding prebiotics to either the sow or her offspring on performance and immunological biomarkers. Her doctorate focused on sow lameness and longevity while evaluating the role of organic trace minerals.  After completing her doctorate, she accepted a position as a monogastric nutritionist with Kalmbach Feeds Inc. She went on to work in regional technical service roles for AB Vista and Purina Animal Nutrition. Most recently she worked for DSM as a Regional Innovation Manager. In 2020, Casey founded The Sunswine Group that is focused on innovation, professional development, and consultancy for producers and the allied industry. Dr. Bradley is a long-standing columnist for Pig Progress and the host and founder of The Real P3 Podcast. She is a passionate advocate for the swine industry and mentors to upcoming professionals through her Coffee and Careers in Animal Science Program. She lives in NW Arkansas with her husband Jason and son Arthur. 

Brady grew up on a mixed livestock and row crop farm where he found his passion for the swine industry. That led him to earn his B.S. in Animal Science and M.S. in Animal Breeding and Genetics from Iowa State University focusing on sow longevity. Brady started with DNA Genetics in 2015 and currently is the Multiplication Business Lead, where he works with multiplier partners to ensure their long-term success while providing a quality product to the commercial producer. Prior to this, Brady’s roles focused on technical services and genetic support to the commercial customer and multiplier partners, through on farm troubleshooting/training, coordinating third party trials and developing the genetic infrastructure needed to oversee multiplication. Brady and his wife, Katy, reside in Columbus, Nebraska.

Brett L. Kaysen, Ph.D., is the senior vice president of sustainability for the National Pork Board. He leads the organization-wide effort to establish pork as the responsible protein of choice. He works to strengthen food chain and consumer understanding of pork production practices by developing research-based communication strategies that engage and influence key decision makers.

Dr. Kaysen earned his degrees from Colorado State University.  He holds a B.A. in Animal Science, an M.A. in Agricultural Extension Education, and a Ph.D. in Animal Sciences, Management Systems.  He resides in Iowa, where he, his wife, and their two daughters raise pigs which they enjoy showing locally and nationally.  

Dr. Patrick Moore has been a leader in the international environmental field for more than 45 years. He is a co-founder of Greenpeace and served for nine years as President of Greenpeace Canada and seven years as a Director of Greenpeace International. As the leader of many campaigns Dr. Moore was a driving force shaping policy and direction for 15 years while Greenpeace became the world’s largest environmental activist organization.

Jimmy Tosh is the owner and CEO of Tosh Pork and Tosh Farms. Tosh Farms is a crop and swine production operation with 19,000 acres of row crops producing both white and yellow corn, soybeans, canola, wheat and barley. Tosh Pork currently has 36,000 sows. Sows are primarily company owned with about 70% of the wean to finish contracted. Trucking is done by Bacon By Gosh, a Tosh owned company.

Read more about Jimmy Tosh below!

Jimmy has been married to Alonna for 43 years and has 2 sons Jamey and Jonathan, both of whom are involved in the business. He is a lifelong resident of Henry County Tennessee. He graduated from Henry High School and received a BS in Animal Science from the University of Tennessee in 1972. He has been involved in the family business since that time. He has increased the operation from a small farm of 316 acres with a small feeder pig finishing unit to its present day size.

Jimmy has been involved in many community activities such as the local Fair, Tennessee Pork Producers, Soybean Association, Corn Growers, Farm Service Agency, NRCS, Relay for Life, Second Harvest, 21st Century Pork and others.

Jimmy has been honored to be named the Star Farmer of West Tennessee in his FFA days. He has also been selected as the Regional Farmer of the Year, Southeast Farmer of the year and the operation awarded the Best Managed Farm in America in 1998.

Jimmy has always been an innovator. He was the first to offer swine contracts in his area. He recognized the movement toward large pen gestation and installed one of the first such units in the US in 2005.

Jimmy’s goal is best stated in the mission statement of Tosh Farms:

“Tosh Farms will be a leading producer of Pork and Grain by adoption of technology, equipment and programs that will place our efficiency in the top tier of the industry. Profitability, quality of our production, environmental awareness and attention to our human resources will be the measurements of our success.”