Weekly Update 7/2/2024

7/2/2024

Get to Know President Nick McCulley

If you see Nick around, don't hesitate to say hello. After just 30 days in his new role, Nick has expressed admiration for our business commitment, loyalty to the company, and pride in our role as food producers. With his extensive experience, from working in family-owned production companies to serving as Global Supply Chain Director at PIC, Nick’s hit the ground running.

Nick’s leadership approach aligns closely with our core values of caring for people, animals, the environment, and the community. He emphasizes the three Ps: People are our greatest assets, Pigs are the core of what we do, and Profit is essential for sustainability.

Nick values culture. He reminds us that each of us influences the culture on our farms and daily operations. He challenges us to consider whether our actions and words contribute to or detract from a positive culture—let’s add to and promote a positive culture!

Operational excellence is at the heart of our business. We champion continuous improvement, focusing on implementation, execution, and consistency across all operations.

Nick also stresses the importance of communication—from the farms to the leadership teams and vice versa- within and between departments. Clear communication is key to our success.

Finally, Nick encourages us to take pride in our work and remain farm-focused. “The magic happens on our farms, where our people do something incredibly unique and noble.”

Well said, Nick! Let’s all continue to extend a warm welcome to our new president.

Appreciation!

We shared some simple thank yous during last week's virtual production management meeting. While this is not nearly comprehensive—considering the daily efforts and dedication of so many—we still thought capturing and sharing right here in the Weekly Update would be fun. Let’s go.

Landon Drake thanks the sow farm teams for their tremendous work in increasing the number of pigs weaned. We’re now pushing 115,000 weaned pigs a week, and he also highlights that sows farrowed are at a 20-week high.

Ron Rush thanks the sow managers who have “jumped all over” the feedback from the wean-to-market supervisors who are sharing data on uncastrated weaned pigs—they are seeing the numbers go significantly down.

Kerry Sweeney thanked the leaders for helping keep everyone safe and cool during the hot temperatures and managing through the flooding in northwest Iowa—both access to our farms and residential/community flooding in many of our hometowns.

Pete Thomas, DVM, wants to give a big thanks to the crews in southern Iowa who are helping with the LVIs in the offsite gilt projects—it’s hard work, there is a tremendous amount of biosecurity between those sites, and there are many moving parts.

Small Notes, Big Impact: Sow 11 says thanks to Eric Wiechmann for the assistance with composting; Sow 31 says thanks to the maintenance team for helping get cool cells working better than ever; Sow 42 says thanks to Max Klepper for helping with the PRRS shutdown, Cassandra Jass, DVM, says thanks to the Sow 14 crew for their clean-up efforts during depop/repop, Travis Weland says thanks to Phillip Barncastle for all the help at Davis #1 and Davis #2. Travis says Phillip has “greatly supported them” at the sites. Chris Morgan says thanks to Kerry Sweeney and the HR team—their people care efforts do not go unnoticed. Doug Bates at Hooper Sow Farm thanks Dr. John Stinn for helping perfect the air quality, and finally—John Hoffmann shares his appreciation for his Sow 26 team!

Do you want to give thanks to someone in the Weekly Update? Please send it to Abby Fausch at afausch@iowaselect.com.

In Case You Missed It (ICYMI)

Sow 19 Earns Most Improved Award

"This award reflects the hard work that our team puts in every single day," said Claudia Escobar Gil, manager of the Union sow farm. "I'm extremely proud of my team and their success, and I feel very fortunate to have each one at Sow 19."

Congratulations to Claudia Escobar Gil, Kevin Catalano, Geovanna Utley, Christopher Cruz Moreno, Yesenia Hernandez Isidro, Luis Lopez Topete, Miguel Moctezuma Villar, Bilma Nanga Coello, David Sarmiento Montavlo, Julie West and Luz Gernanda Mejia on recently earning a SelectPride Most Improved award.

This award is well-deserved after a battle with PRRS over a year ago. “This team is resilient,” said Phillip Barncastle, sow supervisor. “They faced a major setback and implemented a plan to work through the health challenges. Their willingness to stay the course and endure challenging moments ultimately got them through.”

Phillip says Claudia's ownership of the farm and her team is evident, and it’s been rewarding to witness her growth. "She takes pride in tracking numbers and making progress."

In addition to Claudia, the team at Sow 19 is led by Breeding Department Head David Sarmiento and Farrowing Department Head Bilma Coelle. “Every day, we see David and Bilma setting positive examples for the whole team,” said Claudia. “They are both committed to providing top-notch pig care.”

“Every single one of the team members has shown a lot of resilience in getting the farm back in shape and making the most of a difficult situation,” she said. “I’m grateful to have such a knowledgeable, hardworking team by my side. It’s exciting to be recognized, and we’ll continually find ways to get better.” Congratulations to the Sow 19 Union team!

BEST PRACTICE: Summer Swine Shows

Summer is here! Which means it's fair season and the Iowa State Fair will be here before we know it!

As employees and contractors planning to visit the Iowa State Fair, county fair or show pig event, we'll need to be mindful of biosecurity to protect the health of our pigs.

We ask that all employees and contractors follow the biosecurity guidelines laid out in the Best Practice.

English PDF

Spanish PDF

Wean to Market Tools Assessment

A friendly reminder for all wean-to-market sites to complete the tools assessment if you haven't already done so. This survey will allow the maintenance team to supply each farm with the correct tools to perform quick repairs on-site and eliminate potential biosecurity issues by transferring tools from farm to farm. To complete the survey, please click here.

Keeping People and Pigs Safe

A note of appreciation to our transport, feed, and finishing teams for their quick response and extra effort in feeding and caring for our pigs, as the recent flooding in northwest Iowa impacted some of our finishing sites.

Thank You, Warehouses, Supervisors and Managers!

A special thank you to those who helped coordinate the deliveries. It's no small feat to get perishable product out to all of our employees and contracted site managers. We hope everyone enjoys the 4th of July holiday!

Wondering what to make with your ground pork? Watch our Facebook page for some delicious recipes!

SwineSight 2024 Station Recap--Health (2 of 2)

A Veterinarian-Client-Patient Relationship (VCPR) is a working relationship between our veterinarians and us as the clients/caretakers. This relationship establishes how veterinarians and caretakers work together and make good decisions about our pig’s health. Our health services team is such a critical resource for our farms!

The pig is our patient and the center of the relationship between the veterinarian and the client. Both parties work together with the pig's best interest in mind. We all have different responsibilities as caretakers, and we must work with our veterinarians to ensure we provide Top-Notch Pig Care 24/7/365.

How do we maintain a good VCPR?

Good communication, following treatment protocols and vaccination plans, proper training, executing Bruno-level biosecurity, and ensuring the pigs' daily needs are met with food, water, and air are a few examples of how we maintain a strong VCPR.

Recognizing the Hard Work and Dedication of Our Employees

During the recent production management meeting, senior leaders and attendees expressed their deep appreciation for each department's efforts. The atmosphere was filled with enthusiasm as everyone took turns highlighting the dedication and hard work of their colleagues. We want to ensure everyone knows how valued they are. Let's hear what was said about the Multiplication and Research, Feed and Nutrition team.

Multiplication

Maintenance appreciates the communication you provide their team to keep them in the know with what is going on
Continued improvements regarding communication with the transportation team
Communicating site changes with the WTM team

All production teams are working to increase lead time on movements which allows improved planning and increased efficiency for transport
Helping with all the herd closures
Recently transported extra supplies up north after a herd clean up which provided sites with some extra materials

All their hard work, top notch pig care and Bruno-level biosecurity
Working through site clean ups and getting ready for strep-free animals
Adjusting to the continual updates we are making within the system to improve overall health

Research, Feed and Nutrition

Thanks for growing our pigs one feed order at a time!
I appreciate all the effort they put into working with managers to get the correct feed to where it needs to be, especially in emergency situations
Thanks for your focus on research and continual improvement and always looking for ways to make us better
Coordinating fed to all the sites during snow storms

Nikki and Mickey provide awesome service to help keep pigs on the right track, couldn’t get it done without them
To Cesar for sending out weekly reports on SDL and Total Born Conversion
For their efforts to evaluate products with health challenged pigs to improve liability, data analysis for production data in Sows & WTM
For implementing increased orders that require VFDs

For keeping data in front of us on key areas by doing many research trials – keep pushing new ideas
Research is a great idea for me to bounce ideas off – helped to get the water PH implemented
Getting right on top of the extra feed vacs with vaccing every site
Helping watch feed budgets on younger feeder pig movements

Suggest a Stop for Operation Christmas Meal 2024!

Planning has started for one of our favorite Deb and Jeff Hansen Foundation programs! Operation Christmas Meal will be here before we know it, and we need your help. We’re taking suggestions for what towns the pork loin giveaways should visit this year. What towns have we missed in past years? Are there towns in your area that would benefit from this program? Let us know at this link.

Joke of the Week

How do pigs get fat?

By porking out!

This Week's Years of Service

Check out all of the employees below celebrating their work anniversaries this week and last week. If you see these folks out and about, be sure to congratulate them!

25 Years

Misty Walkup, Farrowing Department Head Sow 032 Last Chance

Bill Foley, Director

21 Years

Ellen Selvig, Newborn Pig Specialist Sow 033 Jamestown

11 Years

Mark Lee, Sow Farm Supervisor

6 Years

Ronnie Nightingale, Animal Caretaker Sow 023 Erickson

3 Years

Dustin Spellins, Animal Caretaker Sow 008

Becca Johnson, Animal Caretaker Sow 041 Upland

2 Years

Blaine Bader, CDL Driver

1 Year

Francisco Pesqueira Chong, Animal Breeder Sow 021 Davis Sow

Victor Estrada de la Garza, Animal Breeder Sow 112

Ariana Gonzalez Arguellez, Animal Breeder GDU 036 Maloy 2/Bickel 2

Internal Job Openings

Looking for a new role within Iowa Select Farms? Check out what you may have missed last week. To see a list of our current and new job openings and information on applying, click here or contact Human Resources at 641-648-4479.

On-Call Maintenance Schedule

Stay up-to-date with the on-call maintenance schedule and never lose track of its location. This schedule can be found here, and it will continually be updated in real-time.