An Indiana native, Brooke showed pigs for ten years where he discovered his passion for swine genetics. During his tenure at Purdue University he was a member of the livestock judging team and of Alpha Gamma Rho, graduating with an animal agribusiness degree in 2010. In 2011, he joined The Maschhoffs.
“My years showing in 4-H developed my passion and interest for raising pigs, and my competitive nature drove me to an interest in purebred genetics,” said Brooke. “I wanted to make each generation better than the next. When I joined The Maschhoffs, it was an opportunity to be a part of a much larger system. But commercial production is a lot of pulling the same levers over and over to fix problems. The genetics space allows us to make a product that solves problems for our partners and their farms.”
Brooke has been leading operations for Acuity’s genetic commercial test herd in The Maschhoffs system over the course of the last year. The commercial test herd model is a significant differentiator for Acuity. Analysis of genetic lines within a simulated commercial environment provides critical analysis to ensure predictable performance for customers. Acuity leverages 500+ offspring per sire to understand the differences of select boars when confronted with real-world variables — ultimately providing more value for commercial partners.
“Our commercial test herd provides validation of our breeding objectives in commercial systems — it’s the advantage to understanding how our genetics will perform for our partners,” said Brooke. “We get the commercial system data fed back to nucleus sources, which allows us to make improvements within each generation of animals. This ensures a faster proof of concept for the customer.”
Acuity’s commercial test herd focuses not solely on single traits, but on all traits impacting efficient commercial production. “Having been built inside a commercial system, I’m excited to find real solutions for a commercial customer” added Brooke. “I’ve seen our progress and I’ve seen the animals we’re producing, that quality paired with our focus on customer service means we can deliver results unique to each farm or system.”
“We’ve been working with Ian for some time as an end user of our genetics within The Maschhoffs. His expertise will ensure we continue to make genetic progress and that those genetics are competitive for our customers,” Clint Schwab, Ph.D., President of Acuity said. “We are continuing to evolve our supply chain network so we can service more customers with genetics located regionally and even internationally. Ian will be instrumental in helping our team implement and continuously improve processes to deliver our ever evolving toolkit of genetic solutions and customer service.”
Learn more about the Acuity leadership team at acuityswine.com/our-team/.
