Popular Pig

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. 

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.  

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.

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.

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. 

Dave DeVries is a third-generation farmer from Drayton, Ontario, Canada. With his wife Lauren, they operate Zeldenrust Farms Ltd.,  a farrow to finish hog farm, producing hogs for the Raised Without Antibiotics market. Dave and Lauren have been blessed with four boys ages 6 years, 4 years, and 8-month-old twins. It has been a joy to watch the boys take a keen interest in agriculture from a young age.

Dave is actively involved within his local Reformed Church, as well as his community’s food bank and serves as a Delegate for his County’s Pork Producers Association. 

Drew Mogler is the public policy director of the Iowa Pork Producers Association, a position he has held since 2018. He previously served as IPPA’s producer outreach director and producer education director.

As the public policy director, Drew administers state legislative programs and environmental regulatory activity, as well as supporting national legislative efforts. He works with producer committees and the IPPA board of directors to formulate policy and plan actions to put an adopted policy in place.

Drew grew up near Lester, Iowa (Lyon County) on a 4th generation diversified farming operation that includes a farrow-to-finish enterprise, as well as feeder cattle, row crop (corn and soybeans), and grain elevator enterprises. He has a B.S. degree in agricultural business from Iowa State University.

He is active in Young Professionals in Agriculture, and lives in Ankeny, Iowa. 

Rebecca Barton is a third-generation hog farmer on a 4500 sow farrow to finish operation founded in 1958 in Michigan. She has worked through multiple transitions during her career, first overseeing the farm’s transition from outside to inside open pen gestation, as well as a total herd repopulation in 2019.

Dr. Schinckel has conducted research to examine the potential for improvements in lean growth rate and lean feed conversion via genetic and environmental means including research in the areas of (1) development swine compositional growth curves; (2) modeling of the impact of health status and ractopamine on pig compositional growth; (3) development of stochastic models of pig compositional growth for production systems analysis.

In 36 years at Purdue University, Dr. Schinckel has written 157 refereed publications, 215 abstracts, 73 research papers, 249 extension publications, 217 popular press articles, and 7 book chapters, 126 national invited talks, 73 international talks, and completed 88 research funded grant proposals as PI or Co-PI. 

Tork Whisler is a 5th generation farmer from Washington, IA. He and his wife Tricia have two adult sons, Clay and Sawyer. In addition to their contract finishing and grain operation, Tork spent 15 years in the swine construction business with Precision Structures Inc. both as a service technician and then a salesman. He left PSI in 2015 to assume a management roll with Eichelberger Farms. Just recently Tork has returned to the farm full time with his son Sawyer. 

Sawyer Whisler is a 20-year-old 6th generation Farmer from Southeast Iowa. Who farms aside his dad Tork. Together they take care of the family’s acres and contract finish roughly 15,000 pigs a year for Eichelberger Farms. Tork and Sawyer do all of this while building an online brand around their family farm. Sawyer is the brains behind the content creation. With hopes to create his own online business one day.

Tork Whisler
This’ll Do Farm
(319) 461-1562
Facebook: This’ll Do Farm
Instagram: @thislldofarm
YouTube
LinkedIn