Ron Ketchem's guest appearances

Ron Ketchem

The Swine it Podcast Show

Popular Pig

Kara Stewart

Larry Rueff

Brad Freking

Robert van Barneveld

Aidan Connolly

Gordon Spronk

Casey Bradley

Cesar Corzo

Ashley DeDecker

Vance Crowe

Mike Tokach

Seth Krantz

Mark Knauer

Tyler Holck

Fred Kuhr

OwlTail

About the Guest Ron Ketchem graduated from the University of Missouri in 1973 with a BS in Animal Science and master studies in Reproductive Physiology and Animal Breeding. He worked 12 years for a genetic company in production, sales, and marketing and developed their AI program. He then spent 15 years in Indiana with a major feed company as a Swine Consultant providing technical support and training. Ron later purchased Swine Management Services, LLC in August 2002 with Mark Rix. SMS was sold on September 30, 2019 to MetaFarms, a sow record-keeping company in Minnesota. Today, Ron consults with over 400,000 sows in the US, Canada, and Australia. Ron has been married to his wife Pam for 36 years and has 3 grown sons. Ron Ketchem What can you expect to learn from this episode of Popular Pig? The trends of survivability in the industry.What’s contributing to an increase in sow deathloss.The cost and opportunity cost of a dead sow.Ron’s tips for reducing sow deathloss.How people are key to helping solve these problems.

<h2>About the Guest</h2> <p>Ron Ketchem graduated from the University of Missouri in 1973 with a BS in Animal Science and master studies in Reproductive Physiology and Animal Breeding. He worked 12 years for a genetic company in production, sales, and marketing and developed their AI program. He then spent 15 years in Indiana with a major feed company as a Swine Consultant providing technical support and training. Ron later purchased Swine Management Services, LLC in August 2002 with Mark Rix. SMS was sold on September 30, 2019 to MetaFarms, a sow record-keeping company in Minnesota. Today, Ron consults with over 400,000 sows in the US, Canada, and Australia. Ron has been married to his wife Pam for 36 years and has 3 grown sons.</p> <ul><li>Ron Ketchem</li></ul> <h2>What can you expect to learn from this episode of Popular Pig?</h2> <ul><li>The trends of survivability in the industry.</li><li>What’s contributing to an increase in sow deathloss.</li><li>The cost and opportunity cost of a dead sow.</li><li>Ron’s tips for reducing sow deathloss.</li><li>How people are key to helping solve these problems.</li></ul>

An Updated Take on Pig Survivability | Ron Ketchem

About the Guest Ron Ketchem graduated from the University of Missouri in 1973 with a BS in Animal Science and master studies in Reproductive Physiology and Animal Breeding. He worked 12 years for a genetic company in production, sales, and marketing and developed their AI program. He then spent 15 years in Indiana with a major feed company as a Swine Consultant providing technical support and training. Ron later purchased Swine Management Services, LLC in August 2002 with Mark Rix. SMS was sold on September 30, 2019 to MetaFarms, a sow record-keeping company in Minnesota. Today, Ron consults with over 400,000 sows in the US, Canada, and Australia. Ron has been married to his wife Pam for 36 years and has 3 grown sons.  Swine Management Services is known for its SMS Farm Benchmarking program with 900+ farms &amp; 1.7+ million sows, SMS Analysis Program with in-depth analysis of you sow records with 180+ farms &amp; 400,000+ sows, SMS Growing Benchmarking with over 30+ million pigs and SMS Carcass Evaluation with over 3+ million carcasses. Ron Ketchem What can you learn from this episode of Popular Pig? How Ron Ketchem became involved with the swine industry.How to properly select gilts for the sow farm.How to prepare gilts in gestation for success in gestation and farrowing.Key areas of opportunity for training around gilt selection.Proper management of gilts in the farrowing house.The costs that result from neglecting gilts.  How changes in Prop 12 will affect gilt selection and development.Ron Ketchem’s “Golden Chop”

<h2>About the Guest</h2> <p>Ron Ketchem graduated from the University of Missouri in 1973 with a BS in Animal Science and master studies in Reproductive Physiology and Animal Breeding. He worked 12 years for a genetic company in production, sales, and marketing and developed their AI program. He then spent 15 years in Indiana with a major feed company as a Swine Consultant providing technical support and training. Ron later purchased Swine Management Services, LLC in August 2002 with Mark Rix. SMS was sold on September 30, 2019 to MetaFarms, a sow record-keeping company in Minnesota. Today, Ron consults with over 400,000 sows in the US, Canada, and Australia. Ron has been married to his wife Pam for 36 years and has 3 grown sons. </p> <p>Swine Management Services is known for its SMS Farm Benchmarking program with 900+ farms &amp; 1.7+ million sows, SMS Analysis Program with in-depth analysis of you sow records with 180+ farms &amp; 400,000+ sows, SMS Growing Benchmarking with over 30+ million pigs and SMS Carcass Evaluation with over 3+ million carcasses.</p> <ul><li>Ron Ketchem</li></ul> <h2>What can you learn from this episode of Popular Pig?</h2> <ul><li>How Ron Ketchem became involved with the swine industry.</li><li>How to properly select gilts for the sow farm.</li><li>How to prepare gilts in gestation for success in gestation and farrowing.</li><li>Key areas of opportunity for training around gilt selection.</li><li>Proper management of gilts in the farrowing house.</li><li>The costs that result from neglecting gilts.  </li><li>How changes in Prop 12 will affect gilt selection and development.</li><li>Ron Ketchem’s “Golden Chop”</li></ul>

Selecting and Preparing Gilts for Success | Ron Ketchem

“What are we doing wrong [on sow death loss]? Are we trying to get too much productivity out of the sows? Are we not developing them right? Is health a part of it? There are a lot of things that we don't know… I'm one of the ones who promoted that we need more standardization of death loss reasons. I looked at some data a while back and hit 67 reasons for calls and deaths and 30% of others unknown. It really didn't tell us anything about why those animals were dying.” – Ron Ketchem  What you will learn:  Thoughts on reports; The biggest takeaways on sows; Specific production parameters to look at the most; Key factors; Observations on people and low turnover; Death losses; Trends year by year based on mortality; Farrowing rate; Wean-to-estrus interval; Bump feeding; Replacement rate; Insights on benchmarking analysis; The number of sows per employee.   Meet the guest: Ron Ketchem attended the University of Missouri, where he obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Animal Science and then Master's Studies in Reproductive Physiology and Animal Breeding. Upon graduation, he began working for Kleen Lean, a division of Purina Mills, a genetics company developing AI programs, production training, sales, and marketing. In 2002, Ron and Mark Rix purchased Swine Management Services, LLC, where they’ve grown the business over the last 16 years.

<p><em>“What are we doing wrong [on sow death loss]? Are we trying to get too much productivity out of the sows? Are we not developing them right? Is health a part of it? There are a lot of things that we don't know… I'm one of the ones who promoted that we need more standardization of death loss reasons. I looked at some data a while back and hit 67 reasons for calls and deaths and 30% of others unknown. It really didn't tell us anything about why those animals were dying.”</em> – <strong>Ron Ketchem</strong></p> <p><br/></p> <p><strong>What you will learn:</strong></p> <ol> <li>Thoughts on reports;</li> <li>The biggest takeaways on sows;</li> <li>Specific production parameters to look at the most;</li> <li>Key factors;</li> <li>Observations on people and low turnover;</li> <li>Death losses;</li> <li>Trends year by year based on mortality;</li> <li>Farrowing rate;</li> <li>Wean-to-estrus interval;</li> <li>Bump feeding;</li> <li>Replacement rate;</li> <li>Insights on benchmarking analysis;</li> <li>The number of sows per employee.</li> </ol> <p><br/></p> <p><strong>Meet the guest:</strong> Ron Ketchem attended the University of Missouri, where he obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Animal Science and then Master's Studies in Reproductive Physiology and Animal Breeding. Upon graduation, he began working for Kleen Lean, a division of Purina Mills, a genetics company developing AI programs, production training, sales, and marketing. In 2002, Ron and Mark Rix purchased Swine Management Services, LLC, where they’ve grown the business over the last 16 years.</p>