For 30 years, Bob Goodband and Mike Tokach have been in neighboring offices at Kansas State University.
“We had been across the hall from each other for about 20 years, and then Bob tried to move away from me,” Tokach laughs. “He moved to a new office down the hall. When the office opened up across from him, I moved to that office so I could bug him again.”
As the pair approach retirement in January 2026 from legendary careers serving the pork industry through research, teaching and outreach on the K-State swine team, they admit it’s going to be difficult to say goodbye to their hallway conversations and discussions.
“I definitely am going to miss being able to interact with Bob and ask him questions,” Tokach says. “Now who will I yell at about how he’s handling a particular situation?”
In all seriousness, Goodband and Tokach have compiled incredible results during their tenure. It would be easy for them to boast about the thousands of research reports, scientific journal articles, book chapters and Extension articles they’ve written. They could brag about all the money they’ve received from research grants and gifts, the patents they hold, the invited lectures they’ve led, and more.
But that’s not who they are.
In their eyes, it’s always been about one thing: the people, especially the students. The research was not just about solving problems for producers, though it did; it was about building students and the next generation of swine industry leaders.
Elevating Excellence in the Pork Industry
“My personal satisfaction has been watching the students develop,” Goodband says. “When they come in as a green masters or Ph.D. student, what they’re able to do and how they evolve in their specific areas have really moved the program forward. It’s been through them that the great research projects have been developed and have taken off.”
Tokach agrees and says it’s hard to pinpoint one research project or advancement that stands out the most. Every project and each student helped move the industry forward in some way.
“For every student, the research they were involved in was extremely pivotal and important in their careers,” Tokach says. “When I think about some of the major themes or areas that we had a big play in, early in our career, it was in nursery pig nutrition. We helped develop some of the first trials with plasma and blood cells and those technologies.”
He’s amazed by how many aspects of the industry have evolved over 30 years.
“Rodger Main’s work was one that was very fun to watch, because you could see how it moved in the industry,” Tokach says. “I won’t forget watching the average wean age, off of Pig Champ or MetaFarm records at the time, and seeing how wean age moved after that research became public and hit the industry.”
He points out that the most recent work Abigail Jenkins published on the number of pigs that a sow can actually handle based on her number of functional teats as a great example of how research can be implemented quickly on farms to start making a difference.
Secret to the Swine Team’s Success
“We’ve been so fortunate to work with high-quality people — producers, colleagues and students,” Goodband says. “We remember how it was when we were young and starting grad school. You try to keep that in the back of your mind — the people who helped you along the way. We want to be that for the students we are training.”
They admit they each play a different role in their students’ development.
“Sometimes my role is to be the taskmaster, if you want to call it that, holding people accountable,” Tokach explains. “Bob is more of the patient teacher. He has taught hundreds of students swine science and how to write scientific papers.”
In all situations, they operate as a team because they enjoy working together and see students, pork producers and industry as part of the team that makes valuable contributions to the industry.
“We fully understand that any success our team has had is because of the success our students have had going out and their impact on the industry,” Tokach says. “That’s obviously fed back very positively on what our team has been able to accomplish because of the impact that each of those team members, when they’ve went on into their own careers, have been able to do.”
Though it sounds sentimental, Goodband says cultivating a culture of family has been key.
“When the students graduate and take jobs, they’re not going to work in a vacuum,” Goodband says. “It’s important for them to rely on others for help when they have questions that they don’t know the answer to, to call up former grad students to bounce ideas by. That’s been fun to watch and see the camaraderie they have amongst each other that I hope we’ve had some kind of role in fostering.”
What’s Next for Goodband and Tokach?
Tokach doesn’t think anyone will be too surprised that his wife pulls him into “their hobbies.” After retirement, they will move to Minnesota to be closer to family where they have plans to do a lot of trail riding on their mules, bike riding and traveling.
Goodband is hopeful retirement will allow him to get caught up on things around the house and outside of the house that he’s neglected for the past 10 years. He expects that the outside of the house will be immaculate in a year, he says with a laugh.
Both agree that it won’t be the same when they can’t banter across the hallway at each other. Tokach says he’ll miss the tailgates at football games and all the fun they had outside of the office, too.
“Mike holds me accountable in a lot of different things,” Goodband says. “But most importantly, Mike’s my best friend, and I’m going to miss him immensely.”
Goodband and Tokach share about changes in education, research advancements that have left a mark on swine production, and how they built an iconic culture at K-State on “The PORK Podcast.” You can watch it above and on YouTube or listen anywhere podcasts are found.
