The Iowa Pork Producers Association (IPPA) has teamed up with the Iowa Pork Industry Center and Iowa State University Extension swine specialists to host regional conferences on 8 to 11 March at four locations around the state.

"IPPA works hard to offer educational sessions that can assist producers in their day-to-day decision making," said Tyler Bettin, IPPA producer education director. "We encourage anyone with a genuine interest in pork production to attend these conferences."

Benchmarking productivity can drastically help producers build on profit margins. Ron Ketchum with Swine Management Services (SMS) will share valuable data for producers to benchmark sow production and productivity for the post-weaned pig. He will use actual SMS data to reveal trends in weaning age, weights, production costs and performance and discuss how these factors impact costs.

PRRS continues to be top of mind as a major challenge for today's pork producers. Dr James McKean will share a variety of tools to reduce impacts of PRRS, eliminate the virus and minimize opportunities for re-infection. Regional projects will be discussed as examples of strategies that may be available and to emphasize the need for 'community' action to maximise elimination efforts by individual producers.

Dr McKean also will discuss potential policy changes that may drastically affect producers' ability to use growth-promotion drugs. He will provide results from Denmark and other countries when similar growth promotant removal occurred and then offer potential strategies for reducing the impacts of losing growth promotants in pig production.

Ventilation is a key component tied to health, performance, labour, mortality and profitability in the barn. During the conferences, Iowa State University Extension swine field specialists will reveal some tips for proper ventilation and brief attendees on a multi-state ventilation trailer available for modeling ventilation workshops.

All sessions are hosted from 1:00pm to 4:30pm. Conference dates and locations are as follows:

• Tuesday, March 8 – Sheldon, Northwest Iowa Community College, Building C Auditorium
• Wednesday, March 9 – Carroll, Carroll County Extension
• Thursday, March 10 – Nashua, Borlaug Learning Center
• Friday, March 11 – Ainsworth, Marr Park

Conferences are free for those who pre-register or $5 at the door. Individuals can pre-register by calling IPPA at (800) 372-7675 or sending an e-mail to [email protected].