Emma Wedig is a regional account manager with the US Zoetis Pork team. She has worked with Zoetis for three years focusing on farm training and production and sales.

Wedig’s career path looks a little different than most on the Zoetis Pork team. She didn’t grow up on a farm, but she was raised knowing where her food came from.

“My dad and his parents were very connected to the agricultural world through their friends and neighbors who farmed for a living,” said Wedig. “When it was time for me to pick where I was going to college and what I was going to do for the rest of my life, I knew I was going to Iowa State University, and I really wanted to focus on production agriculture. So I enrolled in Dairy Science.”

However, with the help of great mentors, like Professor Thomas Baas and incredible classes and resources, she fell in love with the swine industry and knew exactly what she wanted to do in her career.

“We always joke that there are seven pigs for every one person in Iowa, so it was really easy for me to get sucked into the swine business in Iowa,” she said.

How has agriculture influenced your life?

Wedig says she knew the swine industry was where she wanted to build her career because of the community of people that she encountered during her internships.

“I knew that’s where I wanted to be because it wasn't just going to work and doing your job. It was people who supported me and understood what I was doing, and how agriculture makes a difference in the world,” she said. “We're feeding people, we work in a sometimes undervalued job but it’s incredibly important, and I knew that's where I wanted to be.”

The last eight to 10 years in the industry has led Wedig down a path that ultimately brought her to the Zoetis Pork team.

“My teammates and the customers I get to work with are what keeps me here, because they're such great people. They give you a drive to want to make a difference in this world, and they remind me that what we do is important,” she said.

When her day-job with Zoetis wraps up, she goes home to farm full-time with her husband, raising beef and dairy cattle. She married into a farming operation near Darlington, Wisconsin that her mother and father-in-law built. They are focused on milking the dairy herd twice a day, building up the genetics of the beef herd and growing corn and silage to feed the cattle. Her husband, his three brothers, and his parents currently run the day-to-day farming operation.

“My farming bones never really turn off. I get to enjoy it in my free time and my work time,” she said. “It's not so much a job for me; it's really a lifestyle. It's a passion. It's something that I hope to continue to grow and build for my own family one day. So agriculture means a lot more to me than it did when I started my career at Iowa State. It's my lifestyle now, and I really wouldn't trade it for the world.”

An evolving career

“I truly have a passion for animals, and that's what got me walking down this road to begin with. I knew I wanted to be in a production-focused role. I really wanted to be at slat level with the animals impacting their direct care,” she said.

Wedig joined Zoetis about three years ago as a pork production specialist, supporting customers across the United States. Traveling to a different state every week, she helped customers consider how they could change or modify processes for the better and help train employees to take care of their animals to achieve the highest outcome on the farm. She was tasked with empowering caretakers to achieve success.

“I really enjoyed those two years working on farms. Then, an opportunity came up to get some experience in sales,” she said. “It kept me a little closer to home and closer to the farm. I've absolutely enjoyed the last year getting to know my customers, learning about their operations and trying to help them the best I can with our Zoetis portfolio.”

Involvement in the swine community

Some of what drives Wedig’s involvement in the industry comes from the fact that she didn't grow up on a farm. Knowing that a very small percent of the population is involved in agriculture drives her to be involved and help share the story of the swine industry.

“I do think that our checkoff organizations and state and national swine organizations are carrying that message for us. And I worked in that area for two years, so I've made it a point to find those organizations – local, state and national - that I find important and give my time to and sometimes my money to because they are the voice of what we do every day and what our customers do day-to-day on their pig farms,” she noted.

Wedig is currently the president of the Southwest Wisconsin Pork Producers, which focuses on scholarships and pork promotion at different county events in the state. She sits on multiple committees for the Wisconsin Pork Association and helps with the Governor's Auction for Wisconsin which is cross-species.

“Supporting youth is a big focus in our state along with sharing the story of agriculture,” she said. “At the national level, I help with the National Pork Producers Council and National Pork Board by sitting on a couple of task forces and committees to share some insight and understand where they're headed so that when I have conversations with customers, I can share those messages and really be aligned to industry goals and strategic planning years down the road.”

Youth exposure to pig farming is also important to Wedig.

“I call it a gift to live where I do and do what I do, but not everybody has that opportunity. If you're in a community, and there’s a young person who wants to show a pig, but they don’t live on a farm, we try to find opportunities to help that young person get involved,” she said.

Wedig says it’s important to get our young people exposed to where their food comes from and get them out to a farm when you are young.

“I want to give them the opportunity to see a pig farm because I never had that opportunity, and I often think maybe I could have been involved differently or sooner in the industry,” she said. “We need to get people on the farm and encourage them to keep learning and asking questions. We have to make sure that doors are propped open to young people to come take a look at what we're doing and understand it so that they can form opinions, and they can see things first-hand while they are young.”

What does Heritage Feeds Tomorrow mean to you?

“It has a really deep-rooted meaning even for people like me, who didn't grow up on a farm. Heritage is what the agriculture community is. Many years ago, everyone was connected to farming, but now, it looks different. It's up to us to share that heritage and our industry story,” she said.

As an industry, it’s important to let consumers know that producers in the hog industry have been here for many, many years and they are family-based operations who want to do the best they can to raise animals and supply food for their community and the world.

“To do that, we have to invest in science and technology in order to make continuous improvements in animal health, genetics and nutrition, and that's what Zoetis does and that's what our customers are focused on doing.”

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