Summary
Dr. Mark Knauer was born and raised on a pure-line pig and cattle operation in southern Wisconsin. He received his B.S. in agriculture education and M.S. in animal breeding at Iowa State University. Following his time at ISU, Mark completed his PhD in animal breeding and genetics at North Carolina State University.
After graduating, Mark completed a short Postdoc at the Institute for Pig Genetics in the Netherlands before accepting a position with the National Pork Board as the Director of Animal Science. Dr. Knauer is currently a swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University where he focuses on genetics and production management.
Top Quotes from Dr. Mark Knauer
- “We have sold sow calipers to 34 countries throughout the world from my little office here in North Carolina, and all of those sales have been word of mouth.”
- “If you are in the barn and you see a sow that is thin, you need to go investigate why that might be.”
- “Body conditioning can be used as a tool to help identify sows that have issues and then allow us to further troubleshoot what is really going on.”
- “When it comes to training potential stockmen, some of these skills take time and they do not develop overnight. Within those people that you are training, you have to have someone that has a passion for animal care and a deep desire to know what to look for.”
- “Having designated treatment stalls/pens within sow farms, combined with improved stockmanship and we will be headed in the right direction in helping reduce our sow mortality.”
What you can expect to learn from this episode of Popular Pig
- You will learn about Dr. Mark Knauer’s background
- You will get a detailed perspective of how to properly manage a sows body condition
- You will hear the founding story of the Knauer Caliper
For more information, please visit : The sow body condition caliper, a paradigm change in sow management
