Wean-to-Market Team Making Progress on Livability | |
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Last week, the wean-to-market team gathered in Webster City to focus on key areas to improve livability across our farms. Ron Rush, Director of Eastern Iowa Wean-to-Market, congratulated the team on their recent improvements in lowering mortality numbers, bringing us closer to the weekly system goal of 0.40%. Paired with the sow system officially hitting 120,000 weekly weaned pigs—we continue to put the right measures in place to drive our production performance up. Keep up the great work!
Ron highlighted a spike in week 12, explaining that it was caused by just five farms experiencing significant health issues. This demonstrates the impact of high mortality in a small percentage of farms on overall results and the importance of preventing these situations.
We’re making progress through collective efforts to enhance communication among flows and implement new treatment and care strategies, particularly aimed at helping the bottom 10% of farms in the wean-to-market system.
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During the afternoon breakouts, senior wean-to-market supervisors led training sessions on critical topics to achieve the goal of 0.4% weekly mortality.
Trent Myers covered site readiness, emphasizing the importance of guaranteeing that farms are perfect for incoming pigs. This includes ensuring all equipment, tools, and technology function properly and that barns and offices are clean and organized.
Jason Paysen introduced a new initiative and protocols for responsibly providing individual pig treatments throughout the growing phase.
Tim Hermsen discussed the importance of accurately counting and properly placing feeder pigs in the first three days.
Finally, Tom Boge demonstrated a quick and easy product for filling gaps in wean-to-market barn slats to protect our pigs.
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In Case You Missed It (ICYMI) | |
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Iowa State Fair Family Days Information
It's hard to believe the Iowa State Fair is just a few days away! There's so much to look forward to--the new fair foods, the Ice Cream Social, the list goes on.
How to Get Your Tickets
Before the Iowa State Fair, you will receive a packet with your admission tickets to the fair. This will be handed to you by your manager or supervisor.
How to Check-In
When you arrive at the Iowa State Fair on the Friday you registered, head to the Alliant Energy Landing, located behind the Livestock Pavilion. This is where you will receive your food coupons and $50 cash (cash is for employees only). Please refer to the map that was included in your packet for the location. Please do not go to the pork tent for check-in!
Registration: 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Ice Cream Social: 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Both at the Alliant Energy Landing
Ice Cream Social
We look forward to seeing you at the Ice Cream Social! Relax, cool off and share in fellowship with coworkers. We'll be offering ice cream, face painting and caricature artists - fun for the whole family!
Payment for extra tickets must be received before you will get access to the tickets. If you aren't sure of the amount, email events@iowaselect.com. Please drop it off at the Iowa Falls office or send the payment here:
Iowa Select Farms
Attn: Courtney Mast
811 South Oak Street
Iowa Falls, IA 50126
For more information, please read our Q&A forms below. Any questions or issues with registration can be submitted to events@iowaselect.com.
Employee Q&A English
Employee Q&A Spanish
See you at the fair!
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Crew Services Leadership Team is Complete
Welcome aboard, Erick Hernandez, Crew Supervisor, Jaime Santos, Crew specialist and Fatima Briceno, crew specialist who make up our newly formed crew services leadership team. This new department—housed within the transportation team—oversees our contracted load and vaccination crews—training the teams and working to ensure Iowa Select policies and biosecurity are followed.
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March 8% Club Announced
The 8% Club recognizes managers and caretakers who achieved a mortality rate of 8% or lower. Congratulations to the following farms on earning a spot on the March 8% Club roster!
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F916 Norton
F144 Marton Parker
F874 Zuma
F190 RB/Schwarck
F759 Schleswig
F967 Gunner
F388 Noelck #3
F229 Rutter
F663 Yetter
F919 Hatch
F454 Henry
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F423 Neumayer
F027 Kulow # 1
F310 Rittgers
F304 LaFrentz
F1007 Schubert
F129 McCandless # 1
F805 Buchanan
F172 Runde
F899 Downing I
F813 Lafayette
F571 Pals North
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Words of Thanks
Dave Osman, Director of Transportation, extends thanks to everyone who responded to the contracted market truck rollover incident in our western Iowa wean-to-market region last week. Several local police, county sheriff, and emergency teams provided medical assistance to the driver and passenger and secured the area. Simultaneously, many employees took immediate action by transporting our regional rollover trailers to the site, setting up temporary fencing to corral the pigs, and loading them onto backup trailers.
Reporting immediately to the site to get the hogs off the trailer included Dustin McGuire, Maintenance Technician; Jason Payson, Wean-to-Market Senior Supervisor; Dan Roth, Wean-to-Market Supervisor; Jerry Ackerman and Western Iowa Maintenance Supervisor.
Tracy Brouwer, Director of Market Transport; Rodrigo Villegas and Val Alanis, Senior Wean-to-Market Supervisors; Luis Sifuentes, Mario Barrios, Paul Issacson, Chad Schultz and Eduardo Castillo, Wean-to-Market Supervisors; and Jake Winkler, Western Iowa Maintenance Technician, also arrived at the site to help corral the hogs and load them onto another trailer.
Special thanks to Ron Rush for helping lead the response effort, to maintenance tech Dustin McGuire, who hooked up the rollover trailer in Rockwell City, and Tracy Brouwer, who transported the Iowa Falls rollover trailer to the scene.
The entire response took about four hours to complete.
Thankfully, the driver from the contracted trucking company is okay, and his passenger, who is currently in the hospital, is in stable condition.
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Thanks to the Iowa State Fair registration assembly crew for efficiently managing the registrations and ticket processing for our upcoming family days. Many people have been helping out, starting with Chad Hill in IT, who set up the Tools form, and the HR team, who fielded the registrations.
A special shout out to Courtney Mast and Carolina Weispfenning (Human Resources) for inputting data into a massive spreadsheet and to Shaun Flander (Controller) for setting up a complex mail merge.
A big thank you to the assembly team of Cathy Rieken (Leave Administrator), Makalya Geise (Comms Intern), Elzette (Health Services), and Bailey Dean, who joined the entire Human Resources team—including Courtney, Carolina, Judith Gonzalez, Kerry Sweeney, Alicia Mejia, Lili Alonzo, Jocelin Fonseca Nuno and Lezly Marquez —for a full day of stuffing envelopes and sorting by work area so our supervisors could deliver them to our farms and facilities.
We couldn't be more excited to see everyone at the 2024 Iowa State Fair!
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Do you want to give thanks to someone in the Weekly Update? Please send it to Abby Fausch at afausch@iowaselect.com. | |
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Joke of the Week
What was the name of a prehistoric pig?
Pigasaurus!
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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!
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9 Years
Tony Davis, Wean-to-Market Manager
Wes Mathany, Maintenance Supervisor
8 Years
Sandy Reuter, Heat Check/AI Specialist Sow 021 Davis Sow
Mike Gilmore Jr, Animal Caretaker Sow 033 Jamestown
6 Years
Carlos Garcia Fortin, Animal Breeder Sow 010 Greenfield Sow
4 Years
Caro Morales Figueroa, Assistant Farrowing Department Head GDU 036 Maloy 2/Bickel 2
Jhonny Garcia Teran, Heat Check/AI Specialist Sow 035 Elmand
Jesus Jimenez Ramirez, Newborn Pig Specialist Sow 027 Gieger
Leandro Panti Martin, Assistant Farrowing Department Head Sow 006 Peterson
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3 Years
Aldo Vazquez Alvaro, Breeding Department Head Sow 029 Thayer
Antonio Felix Moreno, Animal Breeder Sow 026 Fonken
Fatima Briceno Elizondo, Crew Services Specialist
2 Years
Jose Yerbes Vazquez, Animal Breeder Sow 044 Hooper
1 Year
Angelina Smith, Animal Caretaker GDU 540 Conway
Jamie Nosekabel, Animal Caretaker Sow 015 Jernquist Sow
Kayli Carson, Animal Caretaker Sow 027 Gieger
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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.
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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.
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