Rapid growth in the young pig requires an episodic pattern of growth hormone (GH) secretion. We developed different neurosurgical techniques to elucidate sites within the hypothalamus, a lower part of the brain, that regulate GH release in this species. A focus of this research is administration of small brain peptide and nonpeptide hormones that acutely affect GH release to define mechanisms of action and their efficacy in augmenting growth.