Swine Education & Outreach Professionals

NPB is thrilled to announce that it will fund the Swine Education & Outreach Professional grant program in 2025, offering $600,000 to swine educators.  

The objectives of the grant program: 

• Drive state and regional execution of national producer priorities, as identified in the annual industry planning process.
• Facilitate greater swine/pork education reach for under-served states and producers.
• Increase interaction with all segments of pork production and/or operation types.
• Enhance collaboration and coordination among industry, research, and Extension nationwide.
• Support Swine Outreach and Education Professionals as a critical part of a successful national system executed at the local level.
• Leverage expertise of Extension with Checkoff funding.
• Strengthen the partnership between the National Pork Board and Swine Education and Outreach Professionals.
• Advance and enhance the workforce pipeline for industry, research and Extension.
• Expand new and alternative platforms for education deployment.

Click here to learn more

Swine extension, state pork associations and exhibition sites with an up-to-date Premises Identification Number (PIN) can apply for up to 4 handheld RFID tag readers. These readers can either scan both RFID tags and barcodes or be a longer RFID-only reader designed for chute or pen settings. 

Funded by USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Veterinary Services through NPB, this initiative helps reduce the cost of transitioning to RFID tags in the swine industry and supports traceability efforts. These readers make it easier to verify animal identification at shows and reduce handling to read ear tags. Though primarily for exhibition swine, they can also be used for other species with electronic IDs. 

Funding is available through Sept. 14, 2025. If you’d like to acquire RFID readers or have questions, contact Brent Pepin, NPB director of swine health at [email protected].