K-State opens registration for Pet Food Collab 2026
Bottom line
Kansas State University has opened registration for Pet Food Collab 2026, a two-day conference scheduled for October 14-15 in Manhattan, Kansas, that aims to bring together pet food industry professionals, researchers, faculty members, and students. The event is hosted by K-State’s Pet Food Program and is positioned as a forum for sharing research, discussing industry challenges, and strengthening ties between academia and industry. K-State says registration is now live, and the 2026 event will again include its Student & Industry Collab component focused on career connections. (k-state.edu)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the conference is another sign of how closely pet nutrition, manufacturing, research, and workforce development are becoming linked. K-State’s pet food program describes itself as a cross-disciplinary hub spanning grain and food science, animal sciences, agricultural economics, food science, and comparative medicine, and the university says it offers the only four-year feed and pet food science degree program of its kind. That makes Pet Food Collab relevant not just for manufacturers, but also for veterinarians tracking where future nutrition science, product development, and industry talent pipelines are headed. (k-state.edu)
What to watch: Watch for the release of the 2026 agenda and speaker lineup, which should give a clearer read on the nutrition, safety, processing, and workforce issues K-State and industry partners see as priorities this fall. (k-state.edu)
Kansas State University has opened registration for Pet Food Collab 2026, with the conference set for October 14-15 in Manhattan, Kansas. Hosted by the K-State Pet Food Program, the event is designed to connect industry professionals, academic researchers, educators, and students around emerging issues in pet food, while also creating networking and recruiting opportunities. K-State’s event page says registration is now open and confirms the return of the Student & Industry Collab portion of the program. (k-state.edu)
The conference also reflects a broader evolution in how K-State has positioned itself within the pet food sector. Earlier this year, the university’s former KibbleCon event was rebranded as Pet Food Collab, a shift Kansas State said was meant to better emphasize engagement and collaboration among attendees. Pet Food Processing reported at the time that the event was intentionally structured as a small- to medium-scale meeting focused on dialogue across food science, product innovation, economics, marketing, and related topics. (petfoodprocessing.net)
That positioning fits with K-State’s larger investment in pet food education and research. The university says its Pet Food Program was built to address food processing and nutritional challenges for companion and other animals through expertise in areas including extrusion, thermal processing, canning, baking, sensory analysis, and value-added processes. K-State also says the program draws on faculty and infrastructure from multiple departments and institutes, underscoring how pet food has become a cross-functional academic and industry focus rather than a narrow specialty. (k-state.edu)
K-State has also been building its workforce message alongside its research profile. University materials published this spring describe the school as home to the only four-year feed and pet food science degree in the nation, with students gaining hands-on experience in feed and pet food labs and regular exposure to industry partners. Separate K-State academic pages similarly describe the feed and pet food science track as the only undergraduate program of its kind in the United States, highlighting coursework in pet food production, extrusion, safety, and quality. That helps explain why an event like Pet Food Collab is being framed not only as a technical meeting, but also as a pipeline for talent and industry engagement. (k-state.edu)
Some of the clearest industry reaction comes directly from the event page, where participants describe the conference as an R&D-focused setting for technical learning and networking. Melissa Weber, director of technical services at Wilbur-Ellis, calls it her favorite research-and-development-focused event for learning and sharing technical knowledge, while Extru-Tech’s Will Henry says the program helps professionals stay current on trends and connect with K-State. Those endorsements are promotional, but they still suggest the event has carved out a niche as a more specialized, academically anchored gathering within a crowded pet food conference calendar. (k-state.edu)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this announcement is less about a registration opening and more about where pet nutrition and pet food innovation conversations are happening. Veterinary teams are increasingly asked to interpret diet trends, product claims, processing differences, and nutrition research for pet parents. Conferences like Pet Food Collab can influence the topics that move from academia and manufacturing into clinical discussion, especially when they center on formulation, safety, processing technology, and workforce training. The event also reinforces Kansas State’s role as a notable connector between animal nutrition science and the commercial pet food industry. (k-state.edu)
It matters, too, because the veterinary profession continues to intersect with a pet food sector that is becoming more technical, more specialized, and more visible to clients. Even for clinicians who won’t attend, the themes highlighted at Pet Food Collab may offer an early signal of what manufacturers, researchers, and educators see as the next practical issues in formulation, quality assurance, and professional training. That’s especially relevant as veterinary teams field more nutrition questions in general practice and specialty care. This last point is an inference based on K-State’s program structure and the conference’s stated goals. (k-state.edu)
What to watch: The next useful signal will be the publication of the 2026 itinerary and speaker roster, which should show whether this year’s emphasis lands more heavily on nutrition science, processing technology, regulatory issues, student recruitment, or some combination of the four ahead of the October meeting. (k-state.edu)