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Leading with Heart: The Story of Hoosierland Pork’s Jennifer Romero

It started off as a minor inconvenience: Who doesn’t have back pain when they work on a farm all day?

Jennifer Romero brushed it off because she didn’t have time for it. As the Hoosierland Pork sow farm manager for Martin Family Farms, she knew her team needed her to be strong. But as spring turned to summer, the pain continued to escalate.

After multiple doctor visits, tests with no answers and excruciating pain, she knew something was wrong. A trip to the emergency room followed by hospital admission finally resulted in a diagnosis: cancer.

Romero immediately went to Indianapolis where she underwent surgery. Unfortunately, the cancer had progressed and spread throughout her body. When she came out of anesthesia, doctors told her they couldn’t get it all.

“I remember when I was little, and we were under a tornado warning,” says her daughter, Alyssa Wyatt, who is also part of the Hoosierland Pork team. “My mom had the front door open — cleaning and listening to music. She had no fear of the storm and told me, ‘When it’s my time to go, it’s my time to go.’”

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Trending Video

Stress as a Nutrient Thief - Dr. Sarah Pearce

Video: Stress as a Nutrient Thief - Dr. Sarah Pearce


In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Dr. Sarah Pearce, Research Animal Physiologist with USDA ARS, explains why stress can act as a nutrient thief in pigs. She discusses gastrointestinal health, barrier integrity, inflammation, feed efficiency, stress interactions, and emerging biomarkers that may help predict performance challenges before they occur. Listen now on all major platforms!

Click here to read the full research article: https://academic.oup.com/af/article/1...

"Stress can steal calories and nutrients because energy normally used for growth is redirected toward immune activation, gut repair, and other costly survival responses."

Meet the guest: Dr. Sarah Pearce / sarah-pearce-phd-3a5881a5 earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences from Iowa State University and currently serves as a Research Animal Physiologist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service. Her research focuses on gastrointestinal physiology, nutrition, stress biology, immune function, and productivity in pigs and poultry. Learn more from Dr. Sarah Pearce on the Swine Nutrition Black Belt Podcast, available on all major platforms.