Pig Farmers Focus on Taking Care of People, Pigs and Planet

American's Pig Farmer of the Year says farmers are typically to busy doing than talking about their role in taking care of people, pigs and planet.

 

The Pig Farmer of the Year program recognizes excellence in pig farming with winners taking on the role of pork sector ambassadors.

 

Leon Sheets, who operates a northeast Iowa area farm that consists of 600 acres of row crops, a 36 hundred place facility that takes pigs from weaning to 40 pounds and three finishing barns, told those on hand last week for World Pork Expo in Des Moines his role as Pig Farmer of the Year is taking him to places he normally wouldn't have the opportunity to be and to meet and talk to more people than ever before.

 

Leon Sheets-Northeast Iowa Pig Farmer:

 

Our key messages come under our "WE Care" principle.

 

We're going to talk about animal welfare, animal well being.

 

We're going to talk about food safety, we're going to talk about worker safety, we're going to talk about the environment.

 

We're doing the right things by the environment and we're also doing the right things for our community.

 

We're involved in the community.

 

If you start asking a pig farmer, a pork producer, what do they do around home, be ready to start writing down or allow a little time because we are all involved and we think it's the right thing to do.

 

Video: 2026 T.K. Cheung Lecture in Animal Science - Dan Weary

T.K. Cheung Lecture in Animal Science: "Using science to assess and improve the welfare of dairy cattle"

Dan Weary is a Professor at the University of British Columbia. Dan did his BSc and MSc at McGill and Doctorate at Oxford before co-founding UBC’s Animal Welfare Program where he now co-directs this active research group. His research focuses on understanding the perspectives of animals and applying these insights to develop methods of assessing animal welfare and improving the lives of animals. His work has helped drive changes in practices (including the adoption of higher milk rations for calves and pain management for disbudding) and housing methods (including the adoption of social housing for pre-weaned calves). He also studies cow comfort and lameness, social interactions among cows, and interactions between cows, human handlers and technologies like automated millking systems that are increasingly used on farms. His presentation will outline key questions in cattle welfare, highlight recent UBC research addressing them, and showcase innovative methods for improving the lives of cattle and their caretakers.