Selecting and Preparing Gilts for Success | Ron Ketchem

About the Guest Ron Ketchem graduated from the University of Missouri in 1973 with a BS in Animal Science and master studies in Reproductive Physiology and Animal Breeding. He worked 12 years for a genetic company in production, sales, and marketing and developed their AI program. He then spent 15 years in Indiana with a major feed company as a Swine Consultant providing technical support and training. Ron later purchased Swine Management Services, LLC in August 2002 with Mark Rix. SMS was sold on September 30, 2019 to MetaFarms, a sow record-keeping company in Minnesota. Today, Ron consults with over 400,000 sows in the US, Canada, and Australia. Ron has been married to his wife Pam for 36 years and has 3 grown sons. Swine Management Services is known for its SMS Farm Benchmarking program with 900+ farms & 1.7+ million sows, SMS Analysis Program with in-depth analysis of you sow records with 180+ farms & 400,000+ sows, SMS Growing Benchmarking with over 30+ million pigs and SMS Carcass Evaluation with over 3+ million carcasses. Ron Ketchem What can you learn from this episode of Popular Pig? How Ron Ketchem became involved with the swine industry.How to properly select gilts for the sow farm.How to prepare gilts in gestation for success in gestation and farrowing.Key areas of opportunity for training around gilt selection.Proper management of gilts in the farrowing house.The costs that result from neglecting gilts.  How changes in Prop 12 will affect gilt selection and development.Ron Ketchem’s “Golden Chop”