Registration now open for SowBridge educational series

Jan 20, 2025

Registration is now open for an educational series offered by 15 colleges and universities from the nation’s major swine-producing states.

Officials at Kansas State University are encouraging swine producers to sign up for SowBridge, which begins its next program year in February. The distance educational series is for those who work with sows, boars, and piglets.

The series is provided online through Zoom and each session is recorded for later viewing.

“SowBridge provides all participants with the opportunity to hear directly from experts, and to contact those experts following the individual sessions,” said Joel DeRouchey, a swine specialist with K-State Research and Extension.

Sessions generally are hosted on the first Wednesday of the month and run from 11:15 a.m. to about 12:15 p.m. Central time. DeRouchey notes one exception this year is that the fifth session is moved up one week to May 28 to avoid conflicts with World Pork Expo.

During each session, participants can ask questions of the industry expert presenter from the comfort of their home, office or swine unit. Each registration provides access to one Zoom connection per session and all program materials provided by presenters.

The cost is $200 for the first registration, and half that amount for each subsequent registration from the same entity.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.