Meet Our Swine Team

Patrick Duerksen,
Commercial Director, Swine

• North America

• 29+ years in animal nutrition industry

• B.S. Agribusiness, Kansas State University

• M.B.A., University of Iowa

Patrick works with various stakeholders to develop strategy and innovation plans to create better and more sustainable profits for our clients.

Brent Frederick,
Technical Services and Innovation Director, Swine

• North America

• 21+ years in swine nutrition industry

• B.S. Animal Science, Texas A&M University

• M.S. Swine Nutrition, Iowa State University

• Ph.D. Nutrition, North Carolina State University

Brent supports core nutrition consultation and formulation, develops new product, solutions and services to enhance our customer's bottom-line, and combines core nutrition, digital and health solutions to improve business function.

Andrea Vinci,
Sales Leader, Swine

• 20+ years in agriculture with a primary focus in the swine industry

• B.S. Agriculture Science, Truman State University

• M.S. Agriculture Education, Iowa State University

Andrea is an expert in supporting our customers and helping their business, as well as our business become better every day.

Kathryn Price,
Nutrition Analyst Supervisor, Swine

• 10+ years in swine industry

• B.S. Animal Science, North Carolina State University

• B.S. Poultry Science, North Carolina State University

• M.S. Animal Science, North Carolina State University

• Ph.D. Swine Nutrition, Virginia Tech

Kathryn develops customer specific feeding programs, where she specializes in diets for nursery pigs. Additionally she helps troubleshoot nutrition and management issues to optimize nutritional value and financial return, while managing our nutrition analyst team and our products.

Chad Steinkamp,
Strategic Account Consultant

• 25+ years in swine industry

• B.A. Agriculture Business, Iowa State University

Chad's primary responsibility and goal in his work in the swine industry is helping swine production systems be successful.

Brooke Smith,
Veterinary Nutrition Lead

• 6+ years in swine industry and animal nutrition

• 1st year in veterinary industry

• B.S. Animal Science, Michigan State University

• Ph.D. Swine Nutrition, University of Illinois

• DVM, University of Illinois

Brooke consults on the development of health-focused feeding programs for customers. Her skills include troubleshooting health, nutrition and management issues to optimize nutritional value and financial return. Additionally she provides insight on the design and execution of health and nutrition research projects in cooperation with the Swine Innovation Team.

Chad Pilcher,
Swine Nutritionist

• 15+ years in swine industry

• B.S. Animal Sciences, University of Illinois

• M.S. Animal Sciences, University of Illinois

• Ph.D. Nutritional Sciences, Iowa State University

Chad develops customer specific feeding programs, and helps troubleshoot nutrition and management issues to optimize nutritional value and financial return.

Wes Schweer,
Swine Nutritionist

• 5+ years in swine industry

• B.S. Animal Science, Iowa State University

• M.S. Animal Science, Iowa State University

• Ph.D. Animal Science, Iowa State University

Wes works with customers to develop nutrition and management plans to meet their production goals. Wes has expertise in health and nutrition interactions and developing diets tailored to different health challenges.

Chris Parks,
Swine Nutritionist

• 20+ years in the animal nutrition and pork production industries

• B.S. Poultry Science, North Carolina State University

• M.S. Nutrition, North Carolina State University

• M.S. Poultry Science, North Carolina State University

• Ph.D. Monogastric Nutrition, North Carolina State University

Chris develops customer specific feeding programs, works on troubleshooting nutrition and management issues to optimize nutritional value and financial return, and designs and executes research studies both internally and externally.

Ken Mooney,
Swine Nutritionist

• 25+ years in animal nutrition

• B.S. Animal Science, University of Florida

• M.S. Animal Science, University of Florida

• Ph.D. Animal Science, University of Kentucky

Ken's main focus is the nursery area, specifically nutrition and health interactions, and prescription nutrition (how to feed sick piglets). When health issues arise, he develops custom products for customers to aid them in their success. Ken also has expertise in sow nutrition.

Qingyun Li,
Swine Nutritionist

• 4+ years in swine nutrition

• B.S. Animal Science, Nanjing Agricultural University

• M.S. Animal Science, China Agricultural University

• Ph.D. Swine Nutrition, Iowa State University

Qingyun is a technical support nutritionist, working with pork producers to help design the most optimal nutrition program based on their production goals. As our PorkMax modelling tool champion, she is an expert in helping develop and enhance the model based on customer needs.

Zhenbin Zhang,
Swine Nutritionist

• 15+ years in swine industry

• Ph.D. University of Manitoba

Zhenbin is the first point of contact for nutrition expertise within the Canadian pork team. His expertise includes partnering with account managers to identify customer needs, determining fits for Cargill offerings, and serving as a trusted advisor to customers. He works directly with customers on nutrition consulting (diet strategy, nutrient analysis, ingredient supplier selection, research, and economic modeling), provides technical support for Cargill products and services, and sets innovation priorities for the Canadian pork team.

Molly McGhee,
Technology Application Lead

• 1+ years in swine industry

• B.S. Animal Science, University of Illinois

• M.S. Animal Science, University of Illinois

• Ph.D. Animal Science, University of Illinois

Molly develops and ensures the successful execution of research trial protocols for testing new products, nutritional hypotheses, and innovation prototypes for customer solutions. She effectively communicates research results and new innovations to the larger pork team and customers to support the success of all stakeholders.

Sabrina May,
Research and Development Manager

• 19+ years in pork innovation

• B.S. Animal Science, Louisiana State University

• M.S. Swine Nutrition, Louisiana State University

Sabrina is responsible for enhancing the application of swine technologies for customers through planning and execution of applied swine research for Cargill Animal Nutrition North America. She leverages internal, external and customer applied research capabilities to allow for the evaluation, development and refinement of solutions for our swine customers in North America. Her knowledge allows her to align these activities to the business priorities and specific customer needs.

Megan Barnett,
Swine Research Coordinator

• 1+ years in pork innovation

• B.S. Animal Science, University of Illinois

• M.S. Nutritional Sciences, University of Illinois

Megan ensures the successful execution of research trials and supports the communication of research results to the larger pork team.