No production facility, or any business, can be effective without quality employees. Arguably the most important part of any manager’s job is to understand your employees and to provide an environment that is conducive to efficiency, flexibility, and technological adaptation. In today's talk with Fred Kuhr, he discusses how best to address labor challenges, keys to finding quality employees, and how to help employees help us.

What you will learn:

1. Labor challenges

2. Help to ...

The swine industry has adapted with each decade to improve the efficiency of the industry as a whole. Over the years we have made some mistakes as well as many advances, and learning from those mistakes and repeating those successes are the keys to continue improving. In today’s talk with Dr. Connor, we learn about how we have managed diseases in the past, and how to use what we have learned to better manage current and potential future diseases.

What you will learn:

1. Diseases chang...

Hi there - Preventing bacterial infection in the young piglet is critical for all farmers as they have weakened immune systems in the early stages of their life. In the past we used antibiotics until antibiotic resistant strains became more prevalent. Now zinc oxide is the most used antimicrobial feed additive during the nursery period but is it the most effective method? In today’s talk with Dr Schweer, he discusses alternative feeding strategies for preventing bacterial infection of the piglet...

Hi there - In hotter climates and seasons, heat stress can have a large effect on pig performance, regardless of their stage of production. Dr. Jay Johnson has been a wonderful asset to the swine community with his work on the effect of heat stress on pigs and shares some insight on his research findings. In today’s episode, he discusses the importance of understanding heat stress and different strategies we can utilize to help mitigate its effects on pig health and performance.

What you ...

As research continues to develop new ways to improve the swine industry, our farms have to find ways to feasibly implement these new developments. Some new technologies look good on paper, but are not feasible due to the cost of the extra labor. In today’s talk, Dr. Ken Stalder discusses different ways of defining sow productivity, the necessary training required to implement new technologies, and how to identify which technologies will be the most beneficial to implement on the farm:

Hi there - PRRS virus has affected herds across the United States for over 30 years and has been a major cause of economic losses across the industry. As many farms are now PRRS positive or are very likely to eventually contract PRRS, it is important to understand how to monitor, control, or even eliminate PRRS on our farms. In today’s talk with Dr. Daniel Linhares, he discusses several methods of dealing with PRRS to prevent infection and subsequent economic losses and how best to mitigate its ...

Have you ever considered what actions would need to be taken if ASF found its way into the US swine population? This virus continues to be a looming threat to the country as it would bring enormous economical losses along with it. Today we discuss what measures are necessary to prevent the entry of ASF into the country and what plans are in place if the virus does manage to find its’ way into our herd:

''Swine producers must think about what they would do in the worst-case scenario If they c...