Episodes

About the Guests Ryan Hunter Ryan was born and raised in Vicksburg, MI, where his parents and grandparents purchased a feed mill in 1979. He attended Vicksburg High School and graduated from Western Michigan University with a degree in Business Management. Ryan is married with three children. His wife and kids are involved in the farm as well, providing help and support when needed. When he’s not pig farming, Ryan enjoys spending time outdoors and going on adventures with his family. Jarred Lo...

About the Guest Monique Pairis-Garcia is a Professor and Veterinarian in Global Production Animal Welfare at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Pairis-Garcia earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and her Doctorate in Philosophy from Iowa State University and her Bachelor’s degree in biology from Grinnell College. She is board-certified in the American College of Animal Welfare and serves on the Pig Welfare Committee for the American Association of Swine Veterinar...

About the Guest Dr. Lowe is an educator, advisor, researcher, and farmer based in Illinois. He is also a professor and the associate dean for online programs and extension at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois. He holds a DVM and MS from the University of Illinois and has spent most of the last 30 years working in and with red meat production systems in the US and internationally. He lives in Illinois with his wife, Erin, and their dog, Hank. What can you expect t...

About the Guests Dr. David Newman is the Senior Vice President of Market Growth at the National Pork Board. A third-generation pork producer and meat scientist, Dr. Newman leads efforts to understand consumer behavior and drive demand for pork. He focuses on innovative marketing strategies to position pork as a preferred protein. Rob Brenneman and his wife Char own and operate Brenneman Pork, a fully integrated family farm in Washington, Iowa. Rob has grown their operation substantially while ...

About the Guest Joe Kerns brings over 30 years of experience supporting agricultural operations across the livestock and grain industries. He has worked with producers, suppliers, and mills on procurement and risk management strategies including hedging, ingredient purchasing, feed quality, diet formulation, operational benchmarking, and livestock marketing. Joe previously led Partners for Production Agriculture, which was acquired by Ever.Ag, where he served as President of the Livestock Divi...

About the Guest Matthew Gross is a Hutterite. Hutterites are very open-minded, but still cherish their community values. Matthew is a generational pig farmer, with an open mind towards technology and productivity. At their farm they are currently using PigFlow as a means to run a more efficient operation. Hutterite’s have always embraced technology as a means to run their farmers as efficiently as possible. And pig farming has always been a big part of their culture, and a means of financially...

About the Guest Duane Stateler is a fourth-generation pork producer and as the owner/operator of Stateler Family Farms, along with his son, Anthony, oversees all aspects of production and operations. The enterprise features a wean/feeder to finish pork business marketing 15,600 head annually. They also have 900 acres of crop production, raising corn, soybeans, and wheat. Duane currently serves on the National Pork Producers Council Board of Directors as President and represents producers on var...

About the Guest Jennifer Patterson obtained her MSc in Animal Science from the University of Alberta where she is currently a Research Associate and the Swine Industry Liaison for Livestock Gentec. This involves developing research projects that address current industry challenges and providing continued support to producers to implement results at the farm level, putting “science into practice”. Jennifer has worked with many pig industry groups around the world and her current focus is on gilt...

About the Guest Lori is from St. Louis, Missouri and for as long as she can remember, she aspired to be a veterinarian. After her undergrad degree, she worked in a large commercial sow farm in central Missouri where her dreams changed and she fell in love with pigs. Lori went to grad school at Kansas State University and completed her Masters and PhD in swine nutrition where the majority of her research focused around nutrient requirements in gestating sows. Following the completion of her degr...

About the Guests Patrick Fleming, vice president of demand development for National Pork Board, guides his twelve-member team on priorities related to consumer demand, multicultural marketing, foodservice and retail support, packer/processor collaboration and human nutrition strategies. With decades of experience in sales and marketing, he creates uniquely valuable marketing programs by leveraging business-to-business and business-to-consumer activation’s. He is currently a leader in the pork ...

About the Guest Kristen Cumming’s career is focused on improving the connection between people and their work. She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and a Master of Education degree in Workplace and Adult Learning. Kristen spent 11 years instructing in the Donald School of Business at Red Deer College and the Bachelor of Management Business Economics program at the University of Alberta – Augustana Campus and spent the past 20 years operating a successful consulting practice thro...

About the Guest Kurt was born and raised on a pig farm near Barrhead, Alberta, which sparked his passion for swine production and medicine. He graduated with his Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine in 2010 from WCVM in Saskatoon. After graduation, he went directly into swine medicine and has worked in swine practices in Manitoba and Alberta. In 2019, Kurt started a new swine veterinary practice, Precision Veterinary Services inc., based in Red Deer, Alberta. He and his wife Tanja have their home n...

About the Guest Dr Martyna Lagoda holds a B.A degree in Science, Zoology, and an M.Sc degree in Animal Behaviour and Welfare. Following the completion of her Ph.D in Sow Welfare (focus on sow chronic stress and its implications for piglet prenatal stress) at Teagasc, Ireland, in collaboration with the Institute of Genetics and Animal Biotechnology, Poland in 2022, Martyna worked as a research technologist on the “Tail Bite Advice” project in Teagasc, aiming to develop algorithms to accurately m...

About the Guest Dr. David Rosero is an Assistant Professor at Iowa State University. He leads a dynamic research program dedicated to advancing swine nutrition and smart farming practices. His current research initiatives include 1) maximizing the nutritional value of feed ingredients in swine diets, 2) implementing nutritional interventions to improve pig livability and swine systems sustainability, 3) determining the adequate access of pigs to welfare resources, and 4) harnessing computer vis...

About the Guest Scott Dee earned a DVM, MS, and PhD from the University of Minnesota, is board-certified in veterinary microbiology, past President of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, past Chair of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Council on Biologic and Therapeutic Agents and currently serves on the AVMA House of Delegates. After 12 years in swine practice and another 12 years in academia, Scott joined Pipestone Veterinary Services as Director of Applied Resea...

About the Guest As the CEO of Farm Health Guardian, Rob Hannam is committed to helping farms and food companies improve animal health and protect against the devastating impact of animal disease through digital biosecurity. Launched in 2020 for the swine and poultry sectors, Farm Health Guardian technology is reducing the risk of disease spread and improving biosecurity compliance which saves time, reduces the cost of production and improves farm sustainability. Rob’s passion for agriculture ...

About the Guest Kyle Nisley graduated from Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2023 and has been a staff veterinarian with Christensen Farms since the fall of 2023. He was introduced to the swine industry with a production internship at CF in 2017 and was hooked ever since. He expanded his experience in the SVIP program at both Christensen Farms and Swine Vet Center and knew that he wanted to work with pigs long term. Now, he spends his time practicing medicine and researchi...

About the Guest Dave received his BA from The University of Northern Iowa in 1982. In 1984, Dave, with business partner Jeff Westrom, formed JWMorton, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based advertising agency. They produce marketing communications programs ranging from branding to digital to broadcast and for clients representing over 30 industries from high tech to healthcare. JWMorton’s work is seen in local, national and international markets. They are the only Iowa-based independent agency to create an...

About the Guest As the CEO of GroGuru, I drive the overall strategy and operational execution for an exciting AgTech company that is changing the way that we grow crops by using an innovative IoT system for precision irrigation, soil monitoring and management. Former contributor at FastCompany, Tech.Co, Entrepreneur, The Huffington Post, and other publications. Previously featured on CNBC, Bloomberg Television, and in Forbes. I took a company from pre-revenue and pre-product through a successfu...

About the Guest(s) Melissa Bradford – Operations Coordinator Melissa Bradford graduated from Purdue University earning a bachelor’s degree in animal Agribusiness. For the past 15 years Melissa has worked for Martin Family Farms in Williamsport Indiana and is currently the Operations Coordinator. Prior to working at Maritn Family Farms, Melissa also worked for United Animal Health and M2P2 (Ames, IA). Melissa has served on Indiana Pork’s Youth Committee for the past 7 years. Locally, Melissa is...

About the Guests Chris Ford VP Corporate Swine Lender, Farm Credit Services of America, Frontier Farm Credit, and Ag Country Farm Credit. Chris works with swine operations across the Farm Credit Services of America, Frontier Farm Credit, and Ag Country Associations’ state territory and throughout the Midwest ranging in a variety of sizes. Chris is a part of the specialized Swine Team which has lending relationships with 28 of the 40 largest swine producers in the nation. Prior to becoming a Vi...

About the Guest Banks Baker is Global Director of Product Sustainability for PIC, a global animal genetics and biotechnology company. He supports genetic improvement and gene editing as a way to continually improve animal agriculture and provide holistic benefits across the value chain, including reduced greenhouse gas emissions, improved animal welfare and more efficient protein production. Previously, Banks led protein sustainability for McDonald’s USA, creating and implementing greenhouse g...

About the Guest Matt Erickson is currently the Agriculture Economic and Policy Advisor for AgCountry Farm Credit Services, Farm Credit Services of America and Frontier Farm Credit where he provides perspective, insights, and commentary that help connect conditions in the agricultural economy to individual producer impact and resulting impacts to the organization. Before his role at Farm Credit, Matt accumulated approximately fifteen years of policy and agricultural economic experience in Washi...

About the Guest Eric Psota is the Digital Innovation Manager at PIC North America. Since joining in 2021, he has been responsible for developing advanced technologies for digital phenotyping using computer vision and machine learning. Specifically, he specializes in multi-object tracking, pose estimation, animal identification, anomaly detection, real-time systems, and edge computing. Prior to joining PIC, he was a researcher at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he remains on the facult...