Swine industry loses a quiet leader

Paul Matzat loses 13-month battle with ALS.

Kevin.Schulz, senior content specialist

August 26, 2020

5 Min Read
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Paul Matzat

Maynard Hogberg lost a good friend, but he says the swine industry suffered a greater loss when Paul Matzat passed away Aug. 18 after a 13-month battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

"His passion was livestock," Hogberg says, but the Iowa State University Animal Science professor emeritus says Matzat was passionate about so much more than just the animals. An Indiana native, Matzat attended Purdue University where he received both his bachelors and master's degrees in Animal Science. After returning to the farm upon completion of his master's, he was convinced by an uncle to look at the entire picture of pig farming, including economics and profitability on top of his interest in nutrition.

"I think that's when it all came together as an individual who really understood the production and all the disciplines involved, whether it be breeding and genetics and nutrition, reproduction," Hogberg says. "He understood that whole part, but then also understood how important the economics were and understanding how you've got to keep things profitable … very few people can put all that together and understand the production side, as well as the business side and the economic side. He was one of those individuals that could do that."

As much of an anomaly of being able to bring all of that understanding into one mind, Hogberg says Matzat also was unusual in the number of jobs he had in his career. Hogberg says most graduates today will have four to seven jobs in their career, as where "Paul had quite a few more than that. … times when I had talked to him about that, he says, 'well, I have not applied to those jobs. People just come and seek me out and recruited me.' And they did it because he had some skillsets and knowledge that they couldn't find anywhere else." Of the many jobs that Matzat had in his career, which Hogberg believe number 11, Hogberg highlighted Matzat's time with Elanco and Kemin Industries.

Hogberg was at Michigan State University when he first met Matzat, hiring him to manage the school's swine farm. Matzat had also shown interest in pursuing his PhD in swine nutrition, which he achieved during his time at MSU. "It was a win-win," Hogberg says. "Little did I know at the time that he was going to become one of the best friends I had, of the colleagues and friends I had throughout the whole career."

As Hogberg continued in his administration career, he valued the friendship and input Matzat could provide of what was going on in the "real world."

"The more you're in administration, the more you get away from the day-to-day what's going on in the industry. So I really started to rely on him to keep me up to speed because he had that background," Hogberg says. A big move came to get Matzat on the board of directors for the U.S. Pork Center of Excellence as an allied industry representative when the USPCE was formed in 2006. Matzat stayed on the board until last year, resigning after receiving his ALS diagnosis. "He made a major contribution there, as we talked about research priorities, he could tell us who, what, where are the most important research areas that could have an influence on the pork industry," Hogberg says.

Hogberg says his old friend was a man of faith, and "he lived it, it wasn't just lip service. You could see it in his day-to-day and everything he did … in the way he treated people, ethics and values."

Matzat's smile is also something that Hogberg will miss, "he always had a smile on his face."

And, he kept his sense of humor, even when his own health was failing. Part of one of Matzat's research projects involved cannulating sows' stomachs to see if when sows eat more would they lose weight during lactation, would they lose less backfat, would they milk more and would they rebreed sooner. The only way to achieve that is to force feed the sows through a cannula into the stomach.

Fast-forward to Matzat being wheel-chair bound, and he emailed Hogberg saying doctors "tell me I will have to have a stomach port in before too long. Isn't that interesting?" Hogberg wasn't surprised that his old friend found humor and the irony in his own dire situation.

Matzat, of Westerville, Ohio, was 65 when he died. He is survived by his wife of 40 years, Barbara (Schwartz); three daughters, Leah (Ian); Lara (Lucas); and Lyssa; three grandchildren; one brother, Eugene; and two sisters, Dolores and Annette. He was preceded in death by his parents, Ewald Matzat and Flora (Kothe) Matzat and his sister, Nancy. His many nieces, nephews and extended family are spread across the Midwest and country.

The funeral service was held Aug. 24 at the Johnstown Independent Baptist Church in Johnstown, Ohio.

Schoedinger Funeral and Cremation Services handled the funeral arrangements. Click here to read the complete obituary.

At the wishes of Paul and his family, in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Providence Baptist Church of Westerville, Ohio, or the ALS Association of Central and Southern Ohio at Team Matzat's Walk to Defeat ALS website.

About the Author

Kevin.Schulz

senior content specialist, National Hog Farmer

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