Swine Producers and Veterinarians, We Need Your Insights in Shaping the Future of Pork Production.

Casey Zangaro<zangaroc@msu.edu>, Michigan State University Extension -

A multi-state effort is underway to understand better knowledge and educational needs of small swine producers and small swine herd veterinarians.

Pigs in pen
Photo by Casey Zangaro, MSU Extension.

The National Pork Board has funded a multi-state grant to understand small swine producers' knowledge and educational gaps to better serve their needs. As part of that grant, surveys targeted to small swine producers and small herd veterinarians have been created for both parties. The surveys focus on swine health and welfare practices, disease management strategies, production efficiency, sustainability and nutrition choices, and biosecurity.

The importance and need for this grant project are evident with the rise of small herd production systems within the United States and the increasing difficulty in finding free-access knowledge on best practices for small swine herds. The surveys will create educational tools and materials to continue educating small family-owned swine operations and small herd veterinarians with swine clients.

The following surveys will take 10 minutes to complete and will mainly consist of multiple-choice questions. Participation in this survey is entirely voluntary, and you can skip questions or stop participating in the study anytime.

The National Pork Board-funded grant survey link or QR code for small swine producers is below.

Small swine producers.png

The National Pork Board-funded grant survey link or QR code for small herd veterinarians with swine clients is below.

Small herd vets.png

The investigators of this project include Casey Zangaro (zangaroc@msu.edu) and Jonathan LaPorte (laportej@msu.edu) from Michigan State University, Dr. Benny Mote (benny.mote@unl.edu) from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Dr. Laura Greiner (greinerl@iastate.edu) from Iowa State University, Dr. Elizabeth Hines (eah405@psu.edu) from Penn State University, and Dr. Colt Knight (colt.knight@maine.edu) from University of Maine. Please feel free to contact any of us for any questions or comments about the grant project.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

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