The National Pork Board today honored Tom Baas as the recipient of its Distinguished Service Award during the National Pork Industry Forum in Kansas City. Baas is a former animal science professor at Iowa State University.
At the pork industry’s annual business meeting each year, the award is presented to an outstanding leader to recognize his or her lifelong contribution to the pork industry.
“Tom has provided extraordinary leadership to the pork industry,” said National Pork Board President Terry O’Neel, a pork producer from Friend, Nebraska. “Through the years, he worked tirelessly for the advancement of the pork industry and mentored numerous students at Iowa State University.”
Did you know that, although we may look very different, pigs and humans have a lot in common? In fact, we’re so similar in size, physiology and even genetics that pigs are helping scientists learn more about how to treat human diseases. Here are some ways pigs are helping physicians have more tools to treat their patients in the future.
As the saying goes, “If you have livestock, you will have dead stock.” That’s why protecting your four-legged investments is a wise thing to do. The Showpig.com team caught up with Mart Smith, the president of The Smith Sawyer Smith Agency, located in Rochester, Indiana. Mart has a long history of insuring livestock, and he helped us answer some of the questions we had about the process.
With the consumer market for pork and other protein sources changing rapidly, the Pork Checkoff is putting the finishing touches on a plan to capitalize on those changes by repositioning pork marketing, Terry O’Neel, president of the National Pork Board, told an audience at World Pork Expo Thursday. “The Pork Checkoff has embarked on a journey to determine how best to market pork today,” O’Neel, a pork producer from Friend, Neb., said. “The direction may be drastically different than we’ve seen in the last quarter century.”
These days everyone is tied to a smart phone, tablet or computer. With these tools at our fingertips it only makes sense to put them to work. Here are five fun apps that can help swine producers and showmen keep better records, learn about the cuts of meat and even check withdrawal times for a drug they used on their market hogs.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) new regulations regarding on-farm use of medically important (to human health) antibiotics were effective Jan. 1, but it’s important to note that extralabel drug use (ELDU) rules remained in place.
Chances are your barn will be filling up with showpig prospects. They may be trucked hundreds of miles by a hired hauler or be purchased from a breeder right down the road. Regardless, keeping prospects healthy after you purchase them is a key ingredient to showring success, and the stress of sales, travel, strange feed and a new environment makes this task challenging at times. The Showpig.com team caught up with Dr. Mike Tripp, swine veterinarian from Ringling, Oklahoma, to learn how to keep prospects healthy and productive.
Raising boars is a major investment. Like anything that takes so much time and money, it’s important to get a positive return on the investment. It is critical to keep the boars healthy to maximize the return on your investment.
The summer heat can be brutal to the sow herd – both the hot and humid climates and the dry heat cause concern for pig breeders. And their biggest concern is keeping their sows bred.
