Discover Sow Productive Lifetime at the 13th Discover Conference on Food Animal Agriculture
US - In-depth discussion of the industry’s reality and cutting edge science, along with networking and recreation, are the aims of the 13th Discover Conference on Food Animal Agriculture. The three-day event will focus solely on sow productive lifetime and will take place at the Brown County Inn in Nashville, Ind., on Sept. 9-12.
20 June 2007
3 minute read
The sow productive lifetime conference is sponsored by the American Dairy Science Association in co-operation with the US Pork Center of Excellence and funding from the National Pork Board.
The Discover Conference Series began in 1997 with the aim of expanding educational in food animal agriculture. Past conference topics have included food safety, preserving animal germplasm diversity, antibiotics in animal agriculture, but this is the first time the event has focused on a single species other than dairy.
“The ADSA’s Discover Conferences are always held in a venue conducive to deep thinking, brainstorming and discussion in small groups,” said David Meisinger, director of the US Pork Center of Excellence and chair of the conference’s program committee. “The schedule supports these activities as well. Speakers make the commitment to stay through the entire conference and the attendee list is limited to foster rich interaction.
“Valuable ideas will come out of this conference and the U.S. Pork Center of Excellence and the National Pork Board will use them to develop research and educational programming as well as a sow management guide for the industry,” he said.
Mark Boggess, director of animal science for the Pork Checkoff said that conference organisers wanted to have the best minds together in one venue to talk about all the factors that affect productive lifetime.
"The industry keeps on talking about longevity, but what we really should be talking about is the female’s productive life within our herds. Our topics are meant to promote discussion and identify gaps in research and education,” he said.
Topics under review will include nutrition, housing, reproduction, genetics, husbandry and stockmanship, animal well-being, health and physiology. "We hop to tie all these subjects back to economics and hope to come out with a better understanding of what’s missing and how we can better contribute to the producer’s toolbox in terms of sow productive lifetime,” said Mr Boggess.
More information on the conference, click here.
