Services

With significant operating and consulting experience in developing, financing and profitably operating livestock production operations, our Team provides our Customers with consulting solutions in the following areas:

• Nutritional Services – Dr. Chad Hagen and Wayne Cast are recognized as two of the top swine nutritionists in the industry and have assembled a technical team to provide Nutritional Services to our Customers. Our approach is not “least cost”, but rather “best cost” in a review of the entire cost-of-production equation which is often driven more so by throughput and productivity measures as opposed to cost.   We like to “unbundle” our services, and often work with existing nutrition providers.
• Merchandising Services – Our team has significant experience in feed ingredient procurement, logistics and merchandising, including identification of cost-effective alternative feeding ingredients to corn.
• Production – Our team has substantial experience in overseeing large scale swine production systems, from farrow-to-finish, and can offer expertise in all areas of production management – from systems design and production flow analysis to the “block-and-tackle” level of standard operating procedures, best management practices, measurement and benchmarking, human resources and implementation. Dr. Hagen also has extensive practical experience with sow loose housing (pen gestation) systems.
• Genetics – Dr. Hagen has developed a comprehensive genetics plan for major swine producers in North America and currently provides consulting solutions for several genetics companies.
• Feed Manufacturing – Dale Green has had primary responsibility for feed manufacturing and procurement for Cargill, Christensen Farms and others. Dale’s expertise in procurement and feed manufacturing and delivery systems is invaluable in this period of unprecedentedly high feed costs.
• Financial Services – Steve Weiss is recognized as a leading financial manager in the U.S. swine industry, having served as Chief Financial Officer for Iowa Select Farms and consulted with many large swine producers in the areas of strategic planning, financial planning, management information systems, risk management, sensitivity analysis and benchmarking. Casey Westphalen provides “Surrogate CFO” services to producers who don’t have sufficient in-house resources to provide the critical functions of a Chief Financial Officer. Learn more about our financial services capability
• Risk Management – Steve Weiss and Dale Green have implemented comprehensive risk management (hedging) strategies for several livestock and feed merchandising businesses. As the volatility of livestock and grain prices have increased significantly, the importance of proactively managing this price risk has never been greater. For our Customers, we publish a "Hog Crush" which provides a 12-month forward profitability predictor based on current market conditions, an effective risk management tool.
• Processor Contracts – Steve Weiss has been directly involved in negotiating long-term processor agreements with most of the major U.S. swine processing companies, on behalf of several medium sized and large swine producers.
• Business Restructuring – Steve Weiss has considerable experience in working with producers and lenders in turnaround/restructuring work.Mr. Weiss has served the lead role in three major financial restructurings in the swine industry and a complex, large dairy production.  Our financial restructuring expertise is enhanced by the unique operational areas of expertise of our Team, which has allowed VAST to uncover significant profitability/cash flow improvements in the operations of Customers we have served in this capacity, often meaning the difference between business survival and failure.