Iowa Ag Connection - Rademacher Named Pork Industry Center Associate Director

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Rademacher Named Pork Industry Center Associate Director
Iowa Ag Connection - 09/26/2018

Chris Rademacher said the opportunity to develop new conduits of information from Iowa State University to all pork producers drew him to the associate director position at Iowa Pork Industry Center.

"I've been able to collaborate with people from IPIC since I started work as the Iowa State extension swine veterinarian in 2014, and I think IPIC is uniquely positioned to be able to rapidly disseminate health and production information to producers with all sizes of operations in Iowa and around the world," he said. "My passion is about helping producers become more efficient, and to protect animal health and well-being across the U.S. swine industry."

As a clinical associate professor at Iowa State's College of Veterinary Medicine, Rademacher works with veterinarians and scientists who are working on the cutting edge of new technologies related to animal health. Part of his extension appointment is to share this knowledge with producers.

He said his 16 years of experience as a production veterinarian for two large swine production companies built and strengthened his understanding of both swine production and swine medicine, and his strong interest in research can provide a bridge between Iowa State and the industry. He graduated in 1998 from the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, and worked for the next 10 years as director of health for New Fashion Pork in Jackson, Minn. In 2009 he moved to Murphy-Brown Western Operations (Smithfield Foods) as director of production improvement where he worked with veterinarians and production managers on health and production improvement opportunities for 330,000 sows. He came to Iowa State in December 2014.

"I love the collaborative nature between swine faculty in the colleges of vet med and ag and life sciences," Rademacher said. "I think IPIC is positioned to be able to leverage the excellent research happening at Iowa State, which is recognized worldwide as a leader in swine production and swine medicine."

Just as he's intent on providing information to producers, Rademacher also continues to increase his own knowledge in the College of Veterinary Medicine. He's currently enrolled in a newly created population sciences in animal health doctoral program through the Department of Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine. His research will focus on developing better research methodologies for applied animal health research in the field for pork producers, to help them make better decisions.

Rademacher can be contacted by email at cjrdvm@iastate.edu or by phone at 515-294-8792.

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