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”