#26 - Dr. Mark Knauer: What parameters have the biggest impact on pigs through the nursery period?

When it comes to different pig preweaning parameters, which ones are the most important? That is a question that has had a variety of answers over the years, and hopefully after this study we can better understand exactly how large of an effect each parameter has. In this episode, I talk with Dr. Mark Knauer about his study with over 3,000 pigs that used linear modeling to measure how much of the piglet variation was explained by a variety of different preweaning parameters.

 Meet the guest: 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, Dr. Knauer completed his Ph.D. in Animal Breeding and Genetics at North Carolina State University. After graduating, he 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.