Nat Stas is a Technical Services Director for PIC and has been in the commercial swine industry for 15 years, 8 of which have been with PIC. He holds a master’s degree from University of Illinois under Dr. Mike Ellis focusing on swine genetics and reproduction.

In addition to Nat’s commitment to the commercial swine industry, he currently stays involved in the American Society of Animal Science and many livestock youth development programs and swine research programs. Nat resides in Latrobe, Pennsylvania with his wife and twin daughters.

• Why finishing mortality keeps climbing and why it costs you the most money.
• How tracking week on feed at death can quickly narrow down where your real problems are.
• Why cutting pigs open and getting a true diagnosis beats guessing every time.
• The simple things that matter most: getting pigs started right, keeping feed in front of them, avoiding feed outages, and managing space and sound feet late in finishing.

Al Wulfekuhle lives on Lake Delhi in east central Iowa, he is the owner of G&W Pork, a farrow-finish operation that markets around 50,000 pigs per year to Tyson Foods. Al also farms 640 acres of corn and soybeans. Al has business experience in managing farrow to finish pig farms and providing pork industry consulting and is a past President of the Iowa Pork Producers Association and is now serving as Past President of the National Pork Board.

Al has a passion for improving pig production and health, creating more long term demand for pork and assisting others to be successful in the pig industry. He has served on numerous IPPA, NPB and Iowa State University research projects, advisory boards, committees, and task forces. Al and his wife Kathy have 3 married children, all very successful in their careers outside of the pork industry and 9-grandchildren. His personal hobbies are traveling, physical fitness and spending time with family and friends.

• How Al Wulfekuhle built a hog operation from 45 gilts starting in 1979 and grew through both good times and hard ones.
• How relationships and trust helped Al move forward when lenders said no on a barn loan.
• Why some of the toughest times in pork production created the biggest opportunities for growth and leadership.
• Why pork demand became a top priority after 2023 and how the domestic marketing campaign took shape.
• Al’s “Golden Nugget”

Dr. Derald Holtkamp is a Professor in the Department of Veterinary Diagnostics and Production Animal Medicine (VDPAM) in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University (Ames, Iowa, U.S.). He received his DVM, MS in Agricultural Economics, and B.S. in Agricultural Business with a minor in statistics, all from Iowa State University.

Prior to joining Iowa State, he was a private veterinary consultant. He has also served as a technical services veterinarian for ADViSYS Inc., Vice President of Swine Applications for MetaFarms Inc., Director of Pork Development for E-Markets, Inc., and veterinarian for Smithfield Foods in Warsaw, North Carolina. Dr. Holtkamp’s research focuses on managing infectious swine diseases, biosecurity, disease risk assessment, and the economics of animal health and disease. He has authored more than 70 peer-reviewed publications, delivered over 70 invited presentations internationally, and given more than 220 invited talks across the United States. In addition, he has mentored over 275 professional and graduate students.

• How pig mortality directly impacts US competitiveness and why productivity gaps matter far beyond individual farms.
• What global benchmarking data shows about how the US compares to countries like Brazil and why mortality is a major driver.
• How PRRS continues to play a significant role in lost productivity and why its true economic impact is likely underestimated.
• Why biosecurity failures are usually tied to everyday processes, not rare events or one time mistakes.
• How identifying, prioritizing, and monitoring biosecurity risks matters more than debating rules like downtime length.