In an effort to address the effects of rising corn costs on pork producers, the National Pork Board approved $400,000 to develop a nutritional efficiency research and education consortium.

“The nutritional efficiency consortium was developed to determine what research had been completed and what would need to be done on behalf of pork producers,” says Bruce Samson, pork producer from Three Forks, MT, and National Pork Board member. “It was determined that research and education should be focused on nutritional efficiency and not just ethanol co-products.”

Objectives include:

• To maximize production efficiencies through improved feed conversion and reduced feed costs;
  
• To help producers lower feed costs through improved feeding technologies and information about the use of less expensive, alternative diet ingredients;
  
• To develop comprehensive research programs to address genomic and cellular level nutrient use efforts; and
  
• To develop real-time tools to evaluate opportunities and challenges created by corn and other ingredient prices and co-product availability.

The consortium has matched the initial funds provided by the Pork Checkoff. Participants include 10 state pork groups, National Corn Growers Association, DPI Global, Elanco Animal Health, JBS United, Lucta S.A. and Pioneer Hi-Bred.

The consortium will review and approve proposals. Research is scheduled to begin in September.