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AMES, Iowa – Looking for a reliable place to find all information related to pigs, pork and hog production?

The U.S. Pork Center of Excellence (USPCE) has a solution. It supplies the content for the “Hogs, Pigs and Pork” Community of Practice on http://www.extension.org/swine. This vast online library offers material on:

production and management systems
business management, marketing and human resources
swine health and nutrition
animal behavior and welfare issues
breeding and genetics
facilities and equipment
environmental stewardship
pork quality and safety
youth projects
statistics
worker health and safety
niche production and
consumer issues.

The site provides beneficial content for producers, veterinarians, agribusiness professionals, educators, students and consumers. eXtension (pronounced e-extension), a part of the Cooperative Extension System, is an interactive learning environment delivering researched knowledge from land-grant university researchers and educators across the U.S.

David Meisinger, USPCE executive director and leader of the swine information section on eXtension, sees “Hogs, Pigs and Pork” as a valuable resource area for a broad range of people on both the producer and consumer sides of pork production.

“The information on eXtension is just a fabulous resource for anyone remotely interested in hogs, pork and the areas it touches,” Meisinger said. “That includes everything from manure and odor management and care for the environment to pork quality and nutrition.”

Todd See, professor of animal science at North Carolina State University and lead editor for the “Hogs, Pigs and Pork” website agrees that eXtension is an extremely valuable tool for today’s pork producers.

“The quality of information on eXtension is just outstanding,” See said. “This material was written by top-notch researchers at some of the major state ag universities. Producers should know it’s all science-based and reliable. They can utilize that information in their day-to-day operations. On top of that, the information is peer-reviewed by equally competent researchers. Producers have nothing to lose and everything to gain by adding this website to their artillery of resources.”

The “Hogs, Pigs and Pork” community of practice receives the majority of its information from the Pork Information Gateway (PIG) website (http://www.porkgateway.org), which also is managed by the USPCE. PIG also contains information produced by researchers at many state agricultural universities. Visit the “Hogs, Pigs and Pork” resource area at eXtension at http://www.extension.org/swine.