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.

Swine Management Services is known for its SMS Farm Benchmarking program with 900+ farms & 1.7+ million sows, SMS Analysis Program with in-depth analysis of you sow records with 180+ farms & 400,000+ sows, SMS Growing Benchmarking with over 30+ million pigs and SMS Carcass Evaluation with over 3+ million carcasses.

• Ron Ketchem

• How Ron Ketchem became involved with the swine industry.
• How to properly select gilts for the sow farm.
• How to prepare gilts in gestation for success in gestation and farrowing.
• Key areas of opportunity for training around gilt selection.
• Proper management of gilts in the farrowing house.
• The costs that result from neglecting gilts.  
• How changes in Prop 12 will affect gilt selection and development.
• Ron Ketchem’s “Golden Chop”

Robert Drew has well over 3 decades of experience that he brings with him to MAXIMUM AG in both Outdoor and Indoor sow production on a large scale. Along with establishing on-farm Quality Management Programs and Independent Consulting roles, Drew’s knowledge of group housing is a great addition for MAXIMUM AG and its customers. His first exposure to ESF technology was more than 30 years ago in the UK. More recently he has worked with many of the other group feeding systems in the US as the industry started to adapt to the European way of thinking.

• Robert Drew

• How Robert Drew became involved with the swine industry.
• The Origins of Electronic Sow Feeding (ESF).
• How ESP became so popular.
• The differences and benefits of front exit and back exit stalls.
• A Summary of Prop 12.
• The role that ESF can play in helping with Prop 12 compliance.
• Robert Drew’s “Golden Chop”

TJ Klith is a project designer and member of the solar business development team for Trusted Energy out of Storm Lake, Iowa. He is certified by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) as a Photovoltaic (PV) Installation Professional. He has been involved in the design and/or installation of over a hundred solar energy systems for swine production facilities. TJ believes that solar energy and energy storage systems will play a key role in the future of the commercial swine industry, as the means to increase profitability by significantly reducing the electrical costs that are associated and necessary with swine production operations. In addition to the financial benefits that customers experience, he is also excited to part of an industry that is helping to make great strides toward sustainability and carbon reduction around the world. 

• TJ Klith

• TJ’s background and role in the industry
• How does solar energy work?
• What happens with your current electricity provider if you go solar?
• Does the power company buyback any power a solar PV system produces that you don’t use? 
• How long does a solar PV system last? 
• How well does solar energy work with hog production facilities? 
• What incentives are currently available to make going solar even more financially feasible? 
• What is the typical payback and profitability of going solar on a hog production facility? 
• What is the process for installing solar energy at a hog production facility?

Feel free to contact TJ with any questions or inquiries about solar energy via email at [email protected] 

Vivian Howard is an award-winning cookbook author, TV personality, chef, and restaurateur. Her first cookbook, Deep Run Roots: Stories & Recipes from My Corner of the South (2016), is a New York Times bestseller and was named “Cookbook of the Year” by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. She created and stars in public television shows Somewhere South and A Chef’s Life, for which she has won Peabody, Emmy and James Beard awards. Vivian runs the restaurants Chef & the Farmer in Kinston, NC; Benny’s Big Time in Wilmington, NC; Handy & Hot and Lenoir (opening December 2020) in Charleston, SC. In October 2020, Vivian released her second cookbook, This Will Make It Taste Good: A New Path to Simple Cooking.

• Vivian Howard

• Vivian Howard’s Background and Journey to Food
• The role that the swine industry has played in her life
• How studying in Argentina and New York changed her perspective and goals
• How she started her restaurants and created the greatest food experience in Eastern North Carolina
• The amazing versatility of pork and how you can make it even better
• How to best compliment pork with other side dishes or cooking methods
• The missing link to greatly increase domestic pork consumption
• Vivian Howard’s “Golden Chop”

Jay has over 35 years of programming experience across a variety of domains including embedded systems, network appliances, industrial automation, Unix-based servers, as well as stand-alone applications. He also has extensive experience in both product design and system-level design and architecture for both new and legacy systems. He’s had key roles in nine startups resulting in four acquisitions of $100M+ and one IPO, and has been directly involved in numerous other startups as well as established companies in a variety of industries. Currently, he serves on the advisory boards of several companies, works with investment funds to companies under consideration for addition to their portfolios, and provides consulting for a select clientele. 

• Jay Goodwin’s Background
• How to properly dissect and interpret problems
• Asking “why” and how to do it well
• The signs that may mean that you are down the wrong path
• How the Pork Industry can best approach consumers
• Jay Goodwin’s “Golden Nugget”

Todd Heisterkamp was raised in a multi-generational farm family in western Iowa. Being a young man witnessing the struggles of his family during the fuel crisis of the late 1970s and the farm crisis of the early 1980s, Todd decided to choose an education and career path outside of agriculture. After having a successful 20-year career in business development and in manufacturing management in other industries, Todd joined the equipment-side of the pork industry 15 years ago… rediscovering his ag roots.

He now serves as Executive Director of Crystal Spring Hog Equipment and is responsible for overseeing the worldwide business development and marketing of Crystal Spring products. Todd is proud to work with the Crystal Spring Business Development team and is especially happy to work every day with his wife, Natalia Rimi Heisterkamp, who serves as Crystal Spring’s Director of Global Strategy. 

• Todd Heisterkamp

• Todd’s background and how he became involved in the pork industry
• The significance and cost of poorly conditioned sows in lactation
• The bad habits that contribute to poorly conditioned sows in lactation  
• The differences between dry and wet/dry lactations feeders and their varied benefits
• Can you share a golden nugget for the audience?

Mike Ellis was born and brought up in a coal mining village in the north of England.  He obtained B.S. (in Agriculture) and Ph.D. (in Applied Swine Genetics) degrees from the Department of Agriculture at the University Newcastle-Upon-Tyne where from 1978 he held the position of Lecturer in Pig Production.  He moved to the University of Illinois in 1992 where his current position is Professor of Swine Production Management.  Dr. Ellis’ research interests span a range of areas related to applied swine production with a particular focus on managing the growth of pigs in wean-to-finish facilities, animal handling and transportation, pre-weaning mortality, and pork quality.   He has advised over 60 students for MS and/or Ph.D. degrees and has published over 180 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, 300 abstracts, and in excess of 300 occasional publications and reports, and has given presentations at over 250 scientific and producer meetings worldwide.  

• Mike Ellis

• How Dr. Mike Ellis became involved with the Swine Industry
• The complexities of fostering
• Past and ongoing research to better understand fostering
• The best practices around fostering
• Common attributes of highly successful teams in the farrowing house
• Dr. Mike Ellis’s “Golden Nugget

Jim Long is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada.

He is responsible for the direction of Genesus, drives change and sets the strategy and vision for the company, overseeing day to day business of running and managing the company.

He writes a weekly commentary on the Swine Industry that is picked up not only in English, and Chinese as well as 15 additional languages across 27 countries around the world, making Jim Long the most recognized name globally in the pork industry. So far, Jim has visited 52 swine producing countries. Jim is married to Sarah and has four children.

• Jim Long

• How Jim Long became involved with the swine industry
• The meaning of True vs Truth
• The New Years resolutions that the swine industry needs to make
• How pork producers can make the most of 2021
• Jim Long’s “Golden Nugget”

Kevin brings nearly 20 years of experience in financing, managing, growing, and investing in early-stage companies.

Kevin brought his operational expertise in managing and growing other organizations to the Kansas Bioscience Authority (KBA) in 2013 as its Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer where he oversaw all financial, human resource, information technology, and legal aspects of the organization. Kevin’s major focus was on the daily management of the organization’s assets which included real estate, limited partner positions in venture funds, and direct equity positions in early-stage animal health, agriculture, and human health companies. His extensive experience in finance and growing early-stage companies also helped prepare the KBA’s portfolio investment companies for future acquisition.

Prior to joining the KBA, Kevin served as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of the Urban Entrepreneur Partnership (UEP) which was a spinout organization of the $2 billion Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The UEP provided high-level management consulting for early to mid-stage companies primarily in the healthcare, aerospace, and automotive industries with annual revenues up to $500 million.

Kevin also serves on the Selection Committee for the Food and Ag Track of InvestMidwest.

Kevin is a Kauffman Fellow, completed the Venture Capital Executive Program at Berkeley, and earned a BS in Accounting and Finance from Kansas State University. Kevin is very active in the civic sector and currently serves on the board of directors for INTRUST bank and the United Way of Greater Kansas City where he also chairs the Finance committee. He recently completed his tenure on the Kansas State University Foundation board of directors where he chaired the finance committee and asset management committee. Kevin was recently selected as the 2015 Kansas City Business Journal CFO of the Year and the 2016 Outstanding Executive of the Year by the Kansas State University Finance Advisory Board.

• Kevin Lockett

• Kevin Lockett’s background and role today
• Learn about Fulcrum Global Capital
• How to evaluate technology investments in livestock and animal health industries
• What to look for in a company that is focused on agtech in the animal health space
• Why agtech in animal health is so hard
• What needs to change before agtech can reliably and consistently succeed in the livestock and animal health space
• Kevin Lockett’s Golden Nugget

Jon Hoek grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, IL, and was inspired to Agriculture by his Grandpa.  He graduated with a degree in Agricultural Production Management in 1986.  From 1987 to 1997 he owned and operated a 550-sow farrow to finish swine operation. Jon finished a 20-year career with Belstra Milling in 2017 to start a technology company focusing on precision livestock farming and human capital.  Jon has presented both internationally and domestically on the topic of pig production, systems management, and barn culture.  Jon and his wife Laureen have four children and two grandchildren and reside in Wheatfield, IN. 

• Jon Hoek

• How Jon Hoek became involved in the swine industry
• The coming disruptions in business models
• Age of extinction- Solutions needed to stay ahead of the curve
• How to properly equip your human capital
• The use of OKR goal-setting and Continuous Performance Management
• Tools for quantifying organizational health
• The use of technology for human-assisted production 
• Training the people for adaptation of technology