Reporter Ed White is in Des Moines, Iowa, this week covering the World Pork Expo. Check back for daily updates. | Ed White photo

VIDEO: World Pork Expo underway

Western Producer reporter Ed White is in Iowa this week attending the World Pork Expo at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. Nearly 400 exhibitors from the U.S. and around the world will be on site, and more than 10,000 pork producers and ag professionals will be in attendance. Follow this page for daily […] Read more

Sow health is the result of dozens or hundreds of factors that result in overall survivability rates. Nutrition, disease, environment, handling, feed, vaccinations, movement and husbandry all affect how well pigs of all ages do within production systems. | Getty Images

Why are U.S. pig death rates higher compared to others?

DES MOINES, Iowa — “Here in the U.S., we are behind all of our global competitors for both sow mortality as well as grow-finish mortality.” That observation, by Kansas State University animal science professor Mike Tokach, produced a simple question: why? It’s not simple to answer, he said during a panel discussion of veterinary issues […] Read more

Multiple studies examining the ability of Merck Animal Health’s Circumvent CML vaccine to control porcine circovirus, mycoplasma hyopneumoniae and lawsonia intracellularis in hogs were required to prove the new combination works and is safe.  |  Reuters/Daniel Acker photo

Three-in-one vaccine hard to make

DES MOINES, Iowa — It might sound easy to take three vaccines, mix them up and stick them in a bottle. It’s anything but in the real world of scientific limitations, commercial management and regulatory requirements. That daunting combination was on display when Merck Animal Health unveiled its Circumvent CML vaccine. Multiple studies examining the […] Read more


Novus has been promoting the notion of “intelligent nutrition” as a way of tackling many problems in animal agriculture. | File photo

‘Intelligent nutrition’ promoted

DES MOINES, Iowa — Nutrition isn’t an easy or fast way to make money in the livestock industry. But that doesn’t seem to rattle the folks at Novus International, who enthusiastically presented their newest creations at the World Pork Expo here in June. “There is intellectual property on the nutrition side, you just have to […] Read more

Ukrainian hog farmer Yaroslav Bondar.

Power cuts a problem in Ukraine

DES MOINES, Iowa — Like most farmers at the World Pork Expo, Yaroslav Bondar was there to pick up the newest ideas about hog production. But unlike most producers there, he’d been trying to manage tens of thousands of feeder pigs while cruise missiles slammed into nearby power plants and threw his barns into darkness […] Read more