From Producer Priorities to Research in Action: How Pork Checkoff Research Works

Research doesn’t start with a proposal. It starts with a producer need. 

Behind every Pork Checkoff-funded research project is a process designed to connect the challenges producers face on the farm with the researchers who can help solve them. 

That process was on full display this summer when the National Pork Board (NPB) brought researchers, producers, veterinarians, allied industry representatives and other partners together for the National Swine Health Strategy Research Summit in Des Moines last month. 

The Research Summit was designed to look beyond individual projects. Participants shared current and planned research across National Swine Health Strategy (NSHS) priorities, identified opportunities to collaborate, and examined how individual efforts fit together to advance measurable improvements in swine health. 

For Todd Wiley, a pork producer and member of NPB’s Swine Health Advisory Committee, seeing that bigger picture changed the way he viewed Checkoff-funded research. 

Connecting Industry Needs with Research
NPB research takes shape in more than one way. 

In some cases, producer and industry input helps identify a specific challenge or knowledge gap that NPB needs researchers to address. In others, researchers bring forward ideas based on emerging science, new technologies or opportunities they believe could benefit pork producers. 

Both pathways create opportunities to connect promising science with industry needs. 

The NSHS is one example of the first approach. NPB used an industry-wide survey and a producer-led advisory group to identify goals and priorities for improving the health of the U.S. swine herd. Those priorities include eliminating porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), reducing the spread of disease, strengthening foreign animal disease prevention and preparedness, and early detection and monitoring of emerging diseases. 

From there, the Swine Disease Research task force, made up of producers, veterinarians and subject-matter experts, identifies specific knowledge gaps that stand between the industry and those goals. Those gaps can then become the basis for research requests for proposals, or RFPs.