The North Carolina State University Swine Extension team is pleased to announced the addition of Eduardo Beltranena. Beltranena brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to his role as Swine Extension Specialist, where he will focus on reducing piglet crushing by sows, dam mortality and retention in herds, profitability of feeding North Carolina’s feedstuffs and coproducts, precision feeding of hogs and lactating sows, reducing the nitrogen footprint of the pork industry, and the training needs of Spanish speaking workers in North Carolina’s barns.

Beltranena earned his ag engineering degree in animal science from Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico. He then worked as manager of a 1,200 sow farrow-to-finish, crops and feedlot operation where he conducted research field trials. He also formed Cryogenico, a company that imported and distributed frozen swine semen and cattle embryos in Mexico.

After completing his Ph.D. in nutrition and reproduction interactions at the University of Alberta, Canada, Beltranena was feed mill nutritionist and product development lead at Calmar Feed Mill Ltd. in Alberta. He then joined Kansas State University, focusing on baby pig nutrition, before becoming the manager of external research services for Prairie Swine Centre in Saskatchewan.

Beltranena then joined the Alberta Ministry of Agriculture as a monogastric feed research scientist. His position was transferred to the University of Alberta, where he added teaching swine production to his research on feeding novel grains, oilseeds, pulses, value-added processing, and effects of co-products on carcass, meat, egg quality and environmental sustainability.