The Iowa Pork Industry Center will present a swine management program emphasizing marketing Wednesday afternoon through Thursday.

The goal of the IPIC is to hold an educational series aimed at educating consumers and producers about swine production, said Dan Uthe, agriculture specialist for the IPIC.

The area of concentration for this program will be marketing pork with regard to consumer preference in the United States and overseas. Uthe said producers need to be aware of the consumers’ preferences.

“I hope participants come away with the idea that there are many markets to produce for,” Uthe said. “We want to increase general knowledge of what they have to do to produce for those markets.”

Dermot Hays, professor of economics with the ISU Meat Export Research Center, said he will discuss why the pork exports have surged and what it means. He will talk about what he predicts will happen in the future, and the impact it will have on Iowa producers.

The conference includes a program on how to read packer kill sheets and how to use that information for decisions on better quality pork production. The program will conclude with a tour of the ISU Meat Lab.

Uthe said the attendance at the educational series ranges from 80-140 people including producers from individual and corporate farms, representatives from industry, educators and veterinarians.

The center assists with ISU Extension efforts of the swine field specialists, Uthe said. IPIC also supports spreadsheet and computer programs developed at ISU for pork production.

Peter Brooks, University of Plymouth, United Kingdom, will talk about consumer preferences in the U.K.

Peter Davies, North Carolina State University, will discuss food safety and Al Tank, National Pork Producers Council, will discuss ways to increase export markets.

Three people from Iowa with specialized niche markets will share their stories. Tim Beeler is a Winterset producer who produces antibiotic-free pork. Jim Townsend of Grinnell works with mail order marketing. And Paul Bernhard of Bancroft works with pork chops.

Registration is $100 and the spouse of a registered participant may attend for $25. The program is sponsored by the IPIC, ISU Extension and the Iowa Pork Producers Association.

The IPIC is funded through ISU Extension, Ag Experiment Station, ISU departments and industry.