More than a dozen schools were represented as recipients of the 2013 North Central Region Excellence in Multistate Research Award presented by the North Central Regional Association of State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors.

The swine nutrition research team has researched and helped solve problems related to swine nutrition, pork producers’ profitability and distribution of high-quality pork products to consumers worldwide. The team is a collaboration of scientists and extension specialists from 16 land-grant universities and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service.

“Iowa State University has had a long-standing presence on the important swine nutrition research committee. Leadership from our faculty members has helped direct this team toward addressing pertinent and important questions in the swine industry,” says Maynard Hogberg, chair of the Department of Animal Science.

John Patience, Iowa State professor of animal science and leader of Iowa State's Applied Swine Nutrition Research Program, represents Iowa State on the national team.

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Research conducted by the swine nutrition research team has resulted in improved pig weight gain, overall health and reduced piglet mortality, which means reduced costs for farmers and higher-quality pork products. The scientists also developed new technologies and practices to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of swine production throughout the United States. The team additionally identified feed alternatives that are cost-effective and meet the nutritional requirements of pigs. In 2010, this team responded to the vomitoxincontamination in corn, deploying treatments to producers in less than four months.

2013 is the sixth year for the North Central Region Excellence in Multistate Research Award to be presented to researchers for their successful, well-coordinated, high-impact research and extension efforts.

Support for this project comes, in part, from the Multistate Research Fund established by Congress in 1998 through the Agricultural Research, Extension and Education Reform Act (an amendment to the Hatch Act of 1888) to encourage and enhance multistate, multidisciplinary research on critical issues that have a national or regional priority.

Institutions honored with the 2013 award were: Iowa State University, University of Georgia, University of Illinois, Kansas State University, University of Kentucky, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, Mississippi State University, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska, North Carolina State University, Ohio State University, Oklahoma State University, Purdue University, South Dakota State University, University of Wisconsin and the USDA-ARS Agroecosystems Management Research Unit.