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It's back to school....

Saskatchewan's Crop Diagnostic School kicked off yesterday in Swift Current.

The two day event continues today for pre-registered participants.

Crops Extension Specialist Allie Noble says this year's event gives producers, agronomists, industry and retail staff from across the province the opportunity to take part in training sessions focusing on everything from crop scouting to agronomics.

Participants are going through five different stations covering a variety of topics ranging from weeds, to disease and insects, herbicide injury and soils.

The soil station with Dr Jeff Schoenau and Ken Wall focuses on how higher levels of seed placed nitrogen can affect seedling survival, and how different crops can tolerate varying levels of salinity. 

The weed identification station focuses on commonly found and misidentified broadleaf and grassy weeds as well as information on noxious weeds and weed seed longevity. 

The disease station covers a lot of ground from chickpea issues with Dr. Michelle Hubbard to Dr. Sabine Banniza on root rots in pulses.  Dr. Alireza Akhavan focused on verticillium stripe in canola, Dr. Randy Kutcher spoke on cereal diseases while Dr. Dean Malvick talked about Goss’s Wilt and Tar Spot in corn.

At the insect station, Dr. James Tansey along with AAFC Scientists Dr. Meghan Vankosky and Dr. Tyler Wist focus on how to identify and properly scout for insects that you might find across Saskatchewan.

Provincial Weed Control Specialist Clark Brenzil walks participants through herbicide injury symptoms and what to look for on cereals, oilseeds and pulses.

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Porcine Gut Models in Nutrition Research - Dr. Li-Hsuan Chen

Video: Porcine Gut Models in Nutrition Research - Dr. Li-Hsuan Chen



In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Dr. Li-Hsuan Chen, postdoc researcher at Aarhus University, discusses how porcine intestinal cell lines and organoids can help study the impact of nutrition on gut health. He explains how in vivo piglet trials identify diet-driven shifts in microbiota and metabolites, while in vitro models allow researchers to test specific metabolites, barrier function, immune markers, and future organ-on-chip systems before moving back to animal studies. Listen now on all major platforms!

"In vitro models can reduce early animal use by helping researchers screen nutritional candidates before moving back to in vivo trials."

Meet the guest: Dr. Li-Hsuan Chen / li-hsuan-chen-9a95a7279 is a postdoc researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark. Research focuses on porcine gut health, host-microbe interactions, cell lines, and organoids, with PhD work at Aarhus University studying how dietary protein and amino acid levels shape gut microbiota, microbial metabolites, and intestinal epithelial responses. Learn more from Dr. Li-Hsuan Chen on The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, available on all major platforms.