About IDEAL
IDEAL Animal Nutrition was started in 2014 by owner, Jeff Knott, Ph.D. IDEAL was founded on integrity, service, science, and innovation to advance the performance and efficiency of the global production animal industry. Our team strives to provide you with cutting-edge swine nutrition and research capabilities.
MEET OUR TEAM
Dr. Knott has over 20 years industry experience and is a specialist in providing technical nutritional support to swine producers around the world. Jeff has a B.S. in Animal Science from North Dakota State University, M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in Animal Science (Swine Nutrition). He has vast domestic and international swine nutrition and business experience. Jeff spent 10 years with a national nutrition company before founding IDEAL Animal Nutrition. He is a solutions based, big picture thinker that can communicate the details. Jeff is very good at implementing technical nutrition and technologies into practical field application.
Mr. Kern has over 10 years industry experience and specializes in providing technical nutrition and production support to livestock producers and feed manufacturers. Simon has a B.S. and M.S. in Animal Science from South Dakota State University. After completing his formal education, Simon spent five years with a regional nutrition company where he served in multiple roles from feed formulation and technical service to product and customer solutions development. He joined Ideal Animal Nutrition in the Fall of 2018 in order to further pursue his passion of providing swine producers with practical, slat-level solutions to the everyday production challenges they face as a part of the ever-changing global swine industry.”
Dr. Kelsey Hammers is a specialist in technical nutritional support and commercial swine research who joined the Ideal team in 2023. She holds a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Animal Science from the University of Missouri, a Master of Science (M.S.) degree from Kansas State University, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree from the University of Minnesota. With her formal education and experience in the field of animal science and swine nutrition, Dr. Hammers strives to provide optimal nutritional solutions for pork producers that are tailored to the specific needs of each operation. In addition to supporting her customers, Dr. Hammers serves as the research coordinator at Ideal Animal Nutrition. In this capacity, she is responsible for efficiently evaluating and enhancing nutritional programs. Kelsey is dedicated to generating practical and relevant research that empowers pork producers to enhance their productivity and profitability in today’s evolving swine industry.