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 articles in scientific journals, nine book chapters, and more than 1,000 extension and non-refereed articles. Tokach has received more than $20 million in research grants and gifts. He also has been awarded seven patents for his research and has given more than 300 invited lectures at national and international conferences.

Tokach has also advised and mentored over 100 advanced-degree students and visiting professors since joining the university. Mike’s wife Lisa also specializes in Swine as a veterinarian. Together, they have three children, Sage, Rogan, and Fiona.

• K-State research being conducted in 2020
• Importance of slowing down the growth of pigs
• Trial Design and Results
• Experiences and Resources that prepared Dr. Tokach for this study.
• Dr. Michael Tokach’s Golden Nugget

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, vineyards, winery, and pasture playground, producing a variety of foods and wines, raising animals and honey, and growing herbs and flowers using techniques that protect the environment and help foster the development of healthy living.

When not enjoying the farm with the tremendously talented team who keep everything going and their lovely guest, they both stay busy teaching at the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. 

“Our mission statement is to build community through agriculture, education, and culinary delight. We have engaged with our community…”

“We did virtual wine tastings and wine deliveries. We were able to sell and deliver our food and have people come out for pickup. As others were shut down without a revenue stream, we had a revenue stream coming in.”

“Value added creativity is key to achieving profitability…”

“The number one attributor to success is your people and the diversification of your talent pool.”

• How the Walkers engaged with the community to create a profitable farm

• How to create diversity on a small scale farm

• How to leverage education as a revenue stream

• How to create an experience for your customers that will justify a premium price

• Key things you must do, if you want to create your own version of The Walker Homestead

• Bob and Kristy’s Golden Nuggets

More information: walker-homestead.com

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 optimization, Biosecurity, standard operating procedure development and implementation along with business and development projects with the largest genetic companies in the world.

P.J. has spent his entire career forging world-class results with every step from managing a sow farm with Smithfield Foods shortly out of college to Director of Sow Production for one of the largest swine producers in the world. P.J. moved from the direct live production side of the industry to become Director of Technical Services, Europe for Genus PIC prior to starting his own company where his involvement has been key for clients with results seen as industry-leading in both production and profits in all the regional areas he is involved in.

P.J. continues to be involved in many international organizations speaking or presenting globally, information on various topics related to production successes, Building an SOP Culture, African Swine Fever Mitigation Plans for the Real World and Biosecurity systems as a few examples.

The value of relating his hands-on experiences with real and tangible results for the largest and most profitable production systems in the world is the cornerstone of P.J.’s involvement with his clients and partners worldwide.

“They rented 60 person busses that carried 18 employees to work, all to help enforce social distancing and…”

“Live animal transportation has been interesting. We have developed green lines meaning that animals will not sit at a border for…”

“I do not think that the introduction of ASF to Europe is a matter of if but when, and then how prepared are we for that. We have to be…”

• What the impact of Covid-19 and ASF has been on the European supply chain.

• How the past couple of months may influence the future of European pork production.

• The parallels that may exist between countries breaking with ASF

• What China has been doing to address ASF

• P.J. Corn’s Golden Nugget

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’s farm in northeast Iowa, raising pigs, corn, and beans. Dr. Schneider lives in Hudson, IA with his wife and two children.

“How can we meet the welfare needs of pigs that simply have no place to go?”

“All these things that we are trying to do to prevent Covid in the swine industry, we have been doing for a long time.”

“I have had a number of conversations with producers, either independent or others that are having to euthanize hogs, and they get very emotional. There are people that you never…”

“You can’t shy away from the fact that mental health is a real thing. Yep, we are all tough, especially us guys, but these things are real and they are long-lasting.”

• Dealing with Covid-19 on a family farm

• Life of a veterinarian during Covid-19

• The euthanasia dilemma that pork producers are facing

• Mental health and its importance in pork production

• Biosecurity changes due to Covid-19

• How the effects of Covid-19 will affect the future of the pork industry

• Dr. Peter Schneider’s Golden Nugget

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 serves as Chairman of the Board for Pipestone Holdings LLC, a diversified agribusiness that provides products and services in support of livestock owners locally, nationally, and internationally. Dr. Spronk lives near Pipestone and has three children: Courtney, Jordan, and Morgan. He enjoys spending time with his children, and grandchildren.

“The problem is that COVID interventions destroyed 25% of food service demand and then COVID interventions closed our packing plants. There are still pigs left behind…”

“Never underestimate the interaction of your workspace and your community.”

“The competitive advantage of the American swine industry are these large, double shift, very efficient plants. There is a flaw now that we have exposed…”

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture understands the extreme pressure farmers face today. To ensure farmers have access to adequate help that suits their needs, the Department of Ag. provides subsidized counseling for farms. Ted Matthews is the director of MN Rural Mental Health and is based out of Hutchinson, Minnesota.

More Information: Farm Counseling Website

Ted Matthews Contact Information:

Cell: (320) 266-2390

Email: [email protected]

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 his grandfather, Duane Hord, is still part of the day-to-day operations. We spoke with Phil about Covid-19, their company’s response, and its impact on the US industry.

“Disease mitigation has always been a part of our DNA.”

1. “It’s never been about how many sows we could have. It has been about quality and excellence and today I think that size is necessary in a commodity scenario to maintain an ability to be competitive.”
2. “Disease mitigation has always been a part of our DNA.”
3. “We have had the opportunity to be in the room with billion-dollar food companies. They are honestly hoping to understand how they can source products that they can sell to their consumer and tell the story of agriculture.”
4. “I had a college professor that shared the acronym “Own It” with us. Open to Change and Growth, Wrestle with Ideas and Concepts, Never Compromise What is Important, Involve Others, and Have Total Commitment.”

1. A history of Hord Family Farms
2. Hord Family Farm’s response to Covid-19
3. Technology and its place in the swine industry
4. Phil Hord’s “Golden Nugget”

For more information, please visit : Hord Family Farms

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 no stranger to the industry and is applying his production knowledge to the continuous advancement and development of the Maximus control and the industry.

1. “We are seeing a lot of people with a passion to make things better, greener, and now we are able to use mother nature and technologies together to create the perfect ventilated environment.”
2. “Genetics and technologies are going to continue to get better and people are going to be our constraint.”
3. “We look at our top 10 KPIs and say that these are important to me, but the other 4,000,000 data points that we are going to have on each farm every day, we don’t/can’t look at them.”

1. You will learn about Wes Lack’s story within the pork industry.
2. You will learn about Maximus Controllers and how they add value to producers?
3. You will learn about how Maximus contributes to the 3 P’s promoted by the Pork Checkoff (Pigs, People, Planet)
4. You will learn about ventilation trends within the swine industry.
5. You will learn about ventilation opportunities that are available today and how they can impact your operations.
6. You will hear Wes Lack’s perspective on where the swine industry is headed and what it will take to be successful.
7. You will receive Wes Lack’s “Golden Nugget”

Check out: Maximus Solution

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 facilities, but we are never going to remove the caretakers. My hope is that we can make the caretakers more effective.”

1. “When we use a depth camera we can actually predict the weight really accurately and weights that you typically take on a scale are not nearly as accurate as you would hope they would be.”
2. “Precision management farming is going to transform how we are managing facilities, but we are never going to remove the caretakers. My hope is that we can make the caretakers more effective.”
3. “An engineer has a different thought process than an animal scientist. An animal scientist likes to know why things happen and wants to understand all of the details. An engineer takes a completely different approach because they just want to solve the problem. You need both.”

1. You will get to hear an engineers perspective on the swine industry
2. You will learn about precision livestock farming/management
3. You will learn about computer vision and its capabilities in the swine industry
4. You will learn how the dairy industry leverages precision livestock management
5. You will receive Dr. Tami Brown-Brandl’s “Golden Nugget”

Learn more about: Dr. Tami Brown-Brandl

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 Secretary of the Irish Pig Health, and is the Chairman of Pig Health and Welfare on the Irish Farmers Association National Pig and Pigmeat Committee. In 2019, he was chosen as an EU Pig Ambassador for his work in community management. An advocate of pig welfare, Shane also works part time as the International Swine Business Manager for EASYFIX Ireland where he develops the worldwide market for the EASYFIX range of environmental enrichment for pigs.

1. “DNA traceback is capable because the DNA of every single Irish boar is kept on a National database and that means that the Irish Farmers Association can go into restaurants and supermarkets all around the country, pick up a piece of pork or bacon, take it back to the lab, and the see if it matches any boar in the database.”
2. “Denmark finishes most of their pigs in Germany and Poland, producers are worried about the closure of borders. We are also worried about the movement of pig meat and if it is held at the borders, therefore affecting the shelf life.”
3. “The preventative measures used on farms to prevent the spread of Covid-19 must be highly individualized. What works on one farm may not work on another.”
4. “In Ireland, being an island is a big advantage, the worry is that people out there could have pigs that we don’t know about. Even if the risk is low, it is one that we cannot take!”

1. You will learn about Shane McAuliffe and his story within the swine industry.
2. You will learn about how pig production differs from the United States of America and Ireland.
3. You will learn about how Ireland’s pork producers are addressing Covid-19.
4. You will learn about what preventative measures can be taken to minimize the impact of Covid-19 on pig farms.
5. You will learn about the current state of African Swine Fever in Europe.
6. You will learn about the various precautions that Erope is doing to prevent African Swine Fever.
7. You will receive Shane McAuliffe’s “Golden Nugget”

For more information, please visit : ASF Poland: Outbreaks in the west far from over

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 Development.

Kevin is active in numerous professional organizations such as the North American Meat Institute (NAMI), BioForward and BIO; in addition to leading industry committees for UW-Madison and Iowa State University. He received the AMSA Meat Processing Award in 2010 and is a UW-Platteville Distinguished Alumni Member.

1. “A lot of companies out there use their members and employees to build their business. We like to say that we have a company to build our members and employees. It’s almost like a mini University…”
2. “Culture is the collective behaviors of everyone working within the company. The people we have, the products they make, and the culture in which they work in all contribute to longevity and a winning culture.”
3. “Crises come in all shapes and sizes. They present unique opportunities to learn something new. Always air on the side of over communicating.”
4. “Management and leadership of a company has to go the extra mile to say that we are doing everything that we know possible to keep you safe and healthy, we are doing everything that we know possible to keep our customers satisfied and up to date with product, and we are going to keep as much communication as possible flowing to you so you know exactly where we stand.”

1. You will learn about Kevin Ladwig’s story within the food processing industry.
2. You will learn about the “Johnsonville Way” and how it has led to a winning culture.
3. You will learn about how Johnsonville has emerged as a leader within the meat processing industry.
4. You will learn about how Covid-19 has impacted Johnsonville Foods and the industry, as well as how they as leaders are responding.
5. You will hear Kevin Ladwig’s prediction of how Covid-19 will impact the future of meat processing.
6. You will receive Kevin Ladwig’s “Golden Nugget”

For more information, please visit : The Johnsonville Way