The Do's and Don'ts of Customer Clinics

Feb 08, 2024

I had the chance to be a fly on the wall, and listen in to a roundtable discussion at the 2024 Precision Farming Dealer Summit in Indianapolis, as dealers discussed some of their best practices and biggest challenges when it comes to hosting customer clinics. Here are some interesting nuggets I jotted down in my notes app.

The question of charging for clinics came up, to which one precision specialist responded, "When we do free events, if they're not paying anything, then they don't have skin in the game, and they don't participate as much in the clinic. That's one benefit of a perceived cost. They might walk away with a higher appreciation of the clinic." Another dealer said they don't charge for clinics because their customers have already made a big investment by being there.

How big should clinics be? There were differing opinions on that question.

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Video: What Happens When Pigs Adapt to High Soybean Meal Diets? - Gustavo Lima

In this special rerun episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Gustavo Lima, PhD candidate in Animal Science at Iowa State University, discusses how grow-finish pigs respond to high soybean meal diets. He explains the initial drop in feed intake, changes in backfat, later adaptation, energy efficiency, amino acid utilization, and the rise in nitrogen excretion at higher inclusion levels. Listen now on all major platforms!

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

“Once they got adapted to the diet, they can handle higher levels of inclusion of soybean meal.”

Meet the guest: Gustavo Lima / gustavo-lima-a9867127 is a PhD candidate in Animal Science at Iowa State University whose work focuses on swine nutrition, ingredient characterization, energy metabolism, caloric efficiency, and applied data analysis. With more than 15 years of experience in swine production across Latin America, Gustavo also brings expertise in environmental control, performance evaluation, barn ventilation, and grow-finish housing. Learn more from Gustavo Lima on The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, available on all major platforms.