Lee Johnston

Dr. Johnston has been a faculty member in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Minnesota since 1988 and has reached the rank of Professor. He is located at the West Central Research and Outreach Center in rural, western Minnesota.  

Dr. Johnston's current responsibilities include delivering educational programs to pork producers and other industry professionals, conducting swine nutrition and management research, and supervising the West Central Research and Outreach Center's swine research unit. His primary research interests are nutrition and management of the sow, feed ingredient evaluation, renewable energy use in pork production, and management of systems for pork production. As a part of this work, Lee has published over 116 scientific papers, 177 scientific abstracts, 4 book chapters, and secured nearly $7 million in research support. 

Lee was named the Distinguished Alumnus by the Penn State Department of Dairy and Animal Science in 2014 and that same year was named a “Master of the Pork Industry” by National Hog Farmer magazine. He also serves as Director of Operations at his research center and oversees programs in Dairy Production, Renewable Energy, Horticulture, and Agronomy.