July 4 is the last day to get the $50 early bird registration discount for the 2025 Midwest Board Stud Managers Conference, Aug. 13-14 in St. Louis.

Speakers from across the globe will tackle a variety of pertinent topics, said conference organizer Tim Safranski, a University of Missouri Extension state swine breeding specialist.

“The first Midwest Boar Stud Managers Conference was offered in 2000 when less than half of US sows were mated artificially. There was a lot of interest in artificial insemination and a fair amount of training on the female side, but boar and semen work were woefully underserved,” Safranski said. “This is the only boar-exclusive event in North America. We typically have 160-180 attendees who represent 85% or so of U.S. boars. Besides attracting people from 18-20 states, we also have international attendees.”

Conference topics include how protocols in isolation affect performance in collection, environmental impacts on boar development, the effect of varying feeding strategies on the working boar, and what we are (and what we should be) doing about feed contaminants such as mycotoxins.

Safranski said the program targets routine knowledge as well as cutting-edge material and thoughts for the future. Speakers represent “the best of the best,” he said. This year there are speakers from academia and industry from 10 U.S. states plus Germany and China.

Both barn and lab topics are covered, including an overview of what happens on the sow farm, semen collection, impact of environment, feeding and nutrition, health and hygiene, facility thoughts and semen processing updates.

“A highlight has been our stud managers panel where the moderator and the audience put some managers on the stage to answer questions that may not be covered by the speakers,” Safranski said. “That is the final agenda item the first day, just prior to the evening activity. There is also ample time built into the agenda for interaction with sponsors, speakers and other attendees.”

The conference will be held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel St. Louis-Westport.

Learn more and register at cvent.me/N2ZRPW.

For questions, contact Tim Safranski at safranskiT@missouri.edu.