The 13^th Discover Conference on Food Animal Agriculture will focus solely on lifetime sow productivity. The conference is set for the Brown County Inn in Nashville, IN, on Sept. 9-12.

The American Dairy Science Association in cooperation with the U.S. Pork Center of Excellence sponsors the sow productive lifetime conference, with major funding by the National Pork Board.

“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,” says David Meisinger, director of the pork center and chair of the conference’s program committee.

Mark Boggess, director of animal science for the National Pork Board, commented: “We’re interested in having the best minds together in one venue talking 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,” Boggess continues. “We’ll touch on nutrition, housing, reproduction, genetics, husbandry and stockmanship, animal well-being, health and physiology, and we’ll tie it back to economics. We 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.”

More information on the conference can be found at http://www.adsa.org/discover.

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