-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby
Katie Holtz and her dad, Dave Klocke, help lead PigEasy, LLC, their family’s business near Templeton. PigEasy’s products, which developed from needs identified on the Klocke family’s swine farm, combine a farmer’s common sense with an inventor’s curiosity to improve pigs’ well-being.

Templeton — It seemed simple enough. Katie Holtz needed to take a required health class as part of the liberal arts curriculum at the University of Northern Iowa. Because she had minored in music, she couldn’t fit the class into her schedule until she was a senior.

As she sat in the large auditorium one day with the other students, she was shocked by a video the professor showed.

“During the section about protein, the professor played an extremely graphic video of farm animal abuse,” recalled Holtz, 34, who grew up on a swine farm near Templeton and majored in political communication at UNI. “Afterward, she asked who grew up on a farm, and then said something to the effect of, “Well, if you decide to eat meat, just make sure it comes from an organic, free-range farm.”

By then, Holtz was so upset she walked out of class.

“I called my dad, Dave Klocke, and asked for some advice about how to handle the situation,” said Holtz, vice president of Templeton-based PigEasy, LLC, whose products combine a farmer’s common sense with an inventor’s curiosity to improve pigs’ well-being. “He encouraged me to reach out to the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers (CSIF). The CSIF director suggested I ask the professor for some class time to speak about my family’s farm. I did that, and she allowed me 10 minutes to talk about my experience growing up on a farm.”

-Submitted photo
During the Evolution of the Heartland agritourism event in late August in Carroll County and Audubon County, tour participants stopped at PigEasy near Templeton, where Katie Holtz let them experience how the company’s MealMeter system works.

Holtz shared some of the farming practices her family used, including farrowing crates.

She explained how they are important for pig safety.

“I also showed them pictures of my family working on the farm, because I felt they needed to see we’re people, just like them, who care for our livestock and land.”

First, listen to the other

person’s perspective

-Submitted photo
Katie Holtz and her father, Dave Klocke (right), of PigEasy visited with customers and prospects during the 2021 World Pork Expo in Des Moines.

This wasn’t Holtz’s first experience with someone misrepresenting modern agriculture, and it wouldn’t be the last.

“It’s difficult not to take something like that personally, when my loved ones have devoted their lives to farming,” said Holtz, who participated in 4-H when she was young and showed pigs at the fair.

“All farming families sacrifice so much to put food on the table for people around the world. Animal-rights marketing tries to paint the picture that the animal treatment we watched on that video is the norm, not the rare exception that it is.”

That experience at UNI taught Holtz the importance of sharing a different perspective.

“I’m not an expert on animal husbandry, but compared to everyone else in that room that day, I had a lot more experience,” Holtz said. “I owed it to my family to speak up and tell our story.”

Holtz has also learned a lot during her career about how to tell the story of modern pork production more effectively.

“In the past, I’ve made the mistake of taking negativity about animal agriculture to heart,” she said. “I’ve learned that to successfully tell my story, I first need to listen to the other person’s concerns. When you understand the other person’s perspective, you’ll be able to communicate the ‘why’ more clearly.”