AMES, Iowa – This month marks the one-year anniversary of the Iowa Pork Industry Center webinar series, and IPIC director Laura Greiner said producers and other stakeholders help make it happen.

"This program stemmed from producers asking questions and wanting to learn more about select topics," she said. "Each session is designed to provide a more in-depth presentation of subject matter with supporting slides to enhance viewer learning."

Starting a new program like this series can be daunting. Organizers knew the interest and desire for information was there, yet wanted to be sure the content and timing wouldn't overwhelm potential viewers.

"Initially we were unsure how often to create and present material in this manner," Greiner said. "We wanted to provide information while reducing information fatigue with producers, and found a once-a-month event would give time between sessions to address new areas of knowledge while maintaining producer interest."

Greiner was the first presenter in the series, talking about the pig microbiome over two sessions, and said it was an enjoyable experience.

"Creating these initial webinar topics was exciting as we knew we were meeting a need for our people in Iowa," she said. "The intended audience is for all individuals involved in swine production ranging from producers, nutritionists, and veterinarians to allied industry, and we look forward to serving them all."

In this first year, topics have included valuation modeling of contract swine barns, the present and future of boar fertility testing, and approaches towards sow mixing and group management under Prop 12, with many of the presenters from Iowa State University.

"We hope we can continue to share new ISU research with our producers, and help them learn more about those who work with swine here," Greiner said. "Currently, we have more than 90 faculty and staff at ISU who work on some aspect of swine production, health, welfare, and extension and research."

All webinar series sessions are free and held from noon to 1 p.m. Central time. Registration is required and that link is available on the IPIC webinars page along with links to all session recordings.

"We want to thank our viewers for watching and we look forward to comments from our stakeholders as to what they want to learn more about," Greiner said. ""We want to continue to make sure we're meeting needs of our producers to allow them to stay competitive and also to continue to be life-long learners."

She said IPIC will have a suggestion box at Iowa Swine Day this year for producers to ask questions and suggest topics of interest that may be used in this webinar series, regional workshops, contract grower meetings, and more educational opportunities.

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IPIC was established in 1994 as a coordinated effort of the colleges of Agriculture (now Agriculture and Life Sciences) and Veterinary Medicine at ISU. Its mission is to promote efficient pork production technologies in Iowa, maintain Iowa's pork industry leadership and strengthen rural development efforts. IPIC focuses its efforts on programs that are integral and complementary to ISU Extension and Outreach. Through IPIC, Iowa producers receive accurate and timely information to make their operations more efficient and profitable.