Dr. Clayton Johnson is a globally recognized swine health expert with Carthage Veterinary Services in Carthage, Illinois. A 2008 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, he began his career with The Maschhoffs, LLC—where he helped double sow production—and later joined Carthage in 2016 to lead company health initiatives.

Internationally recognized for pioneering bioeconomic models to manage PRRS and PEDrelated diseases, he’s a sought-after consultant in China, Southeast Asia, and beyond. In 2020, Dr. Johnson received the prestigious Allen D. Leman Science in Practice Award for excellence in integrating scientific rigor into swine health management. He is licensed in seven states, leads a team of veterinary professionals, and, beyond veterinary practice, hosts “The Swine Health Blackbelt Podcast” a weekly podcast series reaching a global audience of +100,000 listeners serving to distill complex swine health research into actionable insights.

• Why pig livability decisions range from quick, day to day treatment calls to major capital investments and why they should not be evaluated the same way.
• How biosecurity functions more like insurance than a line item expense and why doing it right often goes unnoticed until it fails.
• Why preventing disease on the front end usually delivers more value than managing problems after pigs get sick.
• How economics, animal care, employee experience, and long term operation health all need to be considered together when making decisions.
• Clayton’s Golden Nugget

Kiersten Hafer is Vice President of Business Intelligence and Innovation for the National Pork Board and provides strategy, insights and guidance to the pork industry and supply chain on where to play and how to win with pork.

She has leveraged her 30 years of experience with Fortune 500 companies and high-growth organizations to uncover and unlock potential, facilitate change and measure expansion. As a lifelong connector and change agent, she has strategized business growth with retailers, marketing agencies, food brokers, food-service operators, market research firms, and consumer goods manufacturers.

Before her role with the National Pork Board, she served as vice president of marketing for Clemens Food Group where she was responsible for marketing, innovation and business insights across its retail and food-service businesses.

Hafer is a graduate of Saint Joseph’s University with a Master of Science degree in food marketing from the Haub School of Business. She resides in the Greater Philadelphia region with her husband, two children and two golden retrievers.

• Why pork’s future growth depends on understanding today’s consumer and not just producing a great product.
• How data and business intelligence are being used to help sell more pork at retail and food-service.
• Why younger consumers want bold flavors, global cuisine, and finished dishes; not whole muscle cuts.
• How rethinking naming, portion size, and presentation can remove barriers to buying fresh pork.
• Kiersten’s “Golden Nugget”

Ben Blair was raised in Sparta, Illinois, where he grew up helping on his family’s corn, soy, wheat, and farrow-to-finish farm. He always enjoyed the numbers behind how things worked, which led him to study engineering at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. After finishing his engineering degree, he felt the pull back toward animal health and entered the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine.

Following a short time in clinical practice, he returned to Illinois to complete a PhD with Dr. Jim Lowe. His work focused on the cull sow marketing network and strengthened his interest in advanced analytics, machine learning, and applying AI to livestock systems. He then spent two years at the University of Minnesota as a researcher while also running a consulting business centered on data and AI projects in agriculture.

In 2023 Blair returned to the University of Illinois, where he now serves as an assistant professor in Livestock Health. His research combines infectious disease modeling with practical applications of AI in veterinary medicine and modern farming.

He lives in Villa Grove, Illinois, with his wife Cathy and their three children, Charlie, Liz, and Lincoln.

• How AI really works — breaking down machine learning, computer vision, and language models in everyday terms.
• Why the swine industry needs “homegrown” AI solutions that understand how farms truly operate.
• The biggest challenges holding back AI adoption in ag — from messy data to slow decision-making.
• How “crawl, walk, run” thinking can help farms start small with AI before chasing advanced automation.
• Ben’s “golden nugget.”