Top mill to host
pork show visitor s
18,000 pork producers from around
the world expected to attend World Pork Expo.
Visitors to the next World Pork Expo
are being offered the chance of visiting a Midwest American feed mill
that belongs to one of the country’s largest pork producers. This visit is included
in an industry tour option called Midwest
Ag Highlights that will also visit a plant
where maize is converted into ethanol.
The tour starts on Monday, June 1, 2009,
in Des Moines, Iowa, and continues the next
day before returning to the city in time for the
show. World Pork Expo itself begins this year
on a Wednesday, June 3, and runs until Friday,
June 5 — a departure from its former profile
as a Thursday/Friday/Saturday event. While
the timing may change, the venue remains the
Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines.
The organizers at the National Pork
Producers Council say they expect 18,000
pork producers from around the world to attend
the show. About 500 supply companies will be
represented on trade stands at the showground.
Trade show hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the
Wednesday and Thursday, with the Friday session opening at 8 a.m. and ending at 1 p.m.
Specialized feed plant
Pre-show industry tours have become
a feature of the annual event that is locally
known as WPX. This time, one tour’s schedule includes calls at Iowa-based ingredients
specialist Kemin Industries and plant genetics company Pioneer Hi-Bred International
as well as the animal science department of
Iowa State University.
Another on the same Monday/Tuesday
dates will check on pork processing — from
plant design and equipment to supermarket
shelves and national promotion.
But the Midwest Ag Highlights tour starts
by visiting animal health products distributor
Ivesco, before going on to ethanol producer
Hawkeye Renewables.
The final stop is at the feed mill of
Christensen Farms, which calls itself the
largest family-owned swine producer in the
U.S. and is in the top three nationally for
production size.
Christensen Farms controls about 175,000
sows producing some three million pigs per
year at units in six Midwestern states. In addition, it is the largest shareholder and owner
of Triumph Foods, ranked second in the U.S.
for sow numbers and annual output.
Feed is also strongly in focus at the show.
World Pork Expo 2009 will see the launch of
the National Swine Nutrition Guide — a collaborative project bet ween American universities, agribusinesses and the U.S. Pork Center
of Excellence that is housed at the National
Swine Research and Information Center on
the campus of Iowa State University.
Practical guidance
The guide’s developers emphasize that
it does not seek to replace the Nutrient
Requirements of Swine publication from the
National Academy of Science (formerly the
National Research Council and, therefore,
still recognized among livestock nutritionists
internationally as NRC). The express purpose
of the new National Swine Nutrition Guide is
to provide nutrient recommendations in practical form on the basis of the 1998 version of
NRC and subsequent research results.
American pork producers used to have
access to bulletins from their state extension
advisory services that explained the basics
of nutrition, feeding practices and related
management issues, the guide’s developers
comment. However, most such bulletins have
ceased to exist after cutbacks in the number of
qualified extension swine nutrition specialists
trained to write or update such documents.
More information about the Nutrition
Guide project will be made available during
World Pork Expo but the main output is
already becoming clear. Fact sheets will be
About 500 companies will be represented
on the trade stands at this year’s World
Pork Expo when it takes place in June on
the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines.
The Expo’s exhibitors regularly include the
biggest names in feed supplies for the North
American market.
published electronically and in print by the
U.S. Pork Center of Excellence, for use by
personnel who work with pork producers.
The WPX set for June 3-5 will be the 21st
edition of the annual show. It was held for the
first time on the Iowa State Fairgrounds in 1988
and has laid the claim of being the largest pork-industry trade show and exhibition in the world.
In recent years, it has drawn more than 30,000
pork producers, exhibitors and visitors from
across the country and around the globe.
Discussing the new-look timing, away from
a Thursday start and mid-Saturday finish to
the Wednesday/ Thursday/Friday profile, WPX
general manager John Wrigley said: “It is what
our visitors and our exhibitors want, a show
that is 100% professional and which no longer
tries to have an additional audience by inviting
the general public at the weekend.
“We have moved away from the original
concept of also drawing in townspeople
and consumers from Des Moines and the
surrounding area of Iowa to see the pork
industry’s largest trade show. Our focus now
is exclusively on the attendance of producers and their advisers from the swine sector,
domestically and internationally.” [FM]
Visitors can register online through the show’s
worldpork.org Web site to purchase tickets in
advance. When attendees register, they will be
sent a name tag that serves as their admission
pass for all three days of the show.
