It’s day one on the job and the new guy is trying to pressure wash an empty farrowing room. He gets impatient trying to blast dried crust off the back of a sow crate, steps too close and hits a curved metal pipe at a 90-degree angle.
The high-pressure stream doesn’t cut through. It explodes into instant blowback.
Embarrassed, frustrated and coated in sludge, he’s not sure what to do next. All of a sudden, his boss walks into the mess, reaches out and shuts off the water valve.
“Go get some fresh air and a drink of water,” the boss says. “I’ve got this room for now. Come back in a bit and I’ll show you a few things.”
Phillip Steber, 54, knows what it’s like to be that new guy. He started at the bottom – pressure washing crates and processing piglets. Today, as a manager of production and field service manager for Borgic Farms Inc., he has built his career by leading from inside the pens, not behind a desk.
“I’d never ask a team member to do a job I haven’t done or am not willing to do myself,” Phillip says. “When a new guy is washing and I step in to take the wand so he can take a break, they wonder why the boss is doing that. But people respect you when you aren’t afraid to get dirty.”
It’s that mindset that makes him a barn hero to everyone who knows him.
“A barn hero is the guy that does the stuff that nobody sees,” explains his son, Dakota Steber, who serves alongside him as production manager. “There are so many things that happen behind the scenes to keep a farm operational that 99% of the world has no idea about. The barn hero is the guy who makes that happen. He allows the rest of the team to stay focused on all the daily stuff and keep the farm operational.”
A True Calling
Phillip oversees 22 employees at Borgic Farms’ 6,200-head breed-to-wean sow unit in Newton, Ill., while managing field service across 10 contract finishing sites totaling roughly 40,000 pig spaces.
His roots, however, go back to a 300-acre farm east of Olney, Illinois, where his family raised cattle, crops and had 30 sows.
“I’m just drawn to it—it’s a calling,” Phillip says. “Out of high school, I drove a truck in the winter for a sanitation company for about six months, but when spring came, I couldn’t take it anymore. I missed seeing the pigs hit the ground. Once it’s in your blood, you can’t imagine leaving this life behind.”
He joined Borgic Enterprises under Jeff Borgic in 1993, working his way from general farmhand to farm manager. When Phil Borgic bought the Newton farm in 2019, Phillip stayed at the helm.
He didn’t make the journey alone. His wife, Suzi, has worked alongside him for three decades and currently serves as the company’s director of human resources and nutrition coordinator.
“People ask me all the time, ‘How do you work with your husband?’” Suzi says. “It’s simple: work is work, and home is home. We balance each other. The areas where I’m weak, he is strong.”
Listening Over Lecturing
To cultivate a positive culture across a 22-person crew, Phillip focuses on listening over lecturing.
“We listen to our employees and let them voice their opinions,” Phillip says. “We may not always do what they want, but we hear them and we try. Don’t stifle them with SOP books. We have our rules, but someone is always going to have a better idea or make you think differently. We can always get better.”
Suzi points out that his management style is grounded in empathy and a well-timed joke.
“He always does a great job of putting people at ease,” Suzi says. “You don’t see Phillip without a smile very often. And he knows his stuff instinctively. When pigs are off feed or something isn’t right, he knows what’s going on. This isn’t a 9-to-5 job. These pigs and the people who care for them rely on us, and Phillip is always there—whether it’s nine in the morning or one in the morning.”
Calm Under Pressure
Livestock production inevitably comes with stress and challenging situations. Whether it’s disease, extreme weather or mechanical emergencies, Phillip provides steady composure that trickles down to everyone.
When the farm broke with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) roughly a year ago, production plummeted. Phillip coached Dakota and assistant manager Luis Molina to stay positive.
“I told them, ‘You’ve got to keep a positive attitude. Don’t let the team see you get down,’” Phillip says. “PRRS sucks. Your production goes in the toilet, and you do twice as much work for half the results. People get tired and grouchy. But if the leads don’t get that way, the team seems to follow.”
The farm pushed through the outbreak, and a year later, production numbers had rebounded to near-record levels.
“Now they can pat themselves on the back because they did that, they got us through that hard time,” Phillip says.
That steady hand hasn’t gone unnoticed by his son.
“When you’re in a high-pressure situation and things aren’t going right, Dad has a way of letting the pressure out of the air,” Dakota says. “A calming presence takes over, and everyone feels like it’s going to be okay. Working with pigs can frustrate you every day if you let it. Knowing how to take a breath and chill out is a difference-maker for the whole barn.”
“Come Get It, I’ll Teach You”
A true barn hero doesn’t hoard authority. Instead, he prepares the next generation to replace him.
“People ask Phillip sometimes, ‘Well, what if I fail?’” Suzi says. “Phillip tells them, ‘FAIL is just your First Attempt In Learning.’ And when someone tells him, ‘I want your job,’ Phillip just smiles and says: ‘Let’s go. Come get it, I’ll teach you how.’”
Through Borgic Farms’ leadership development program, Phillip mentors up-and-coming operators across the company.
“Watching other future leaders be mentored by my dad made me realize how much I took his leadership for granted,” Dakota admits. “I had an awesome built-in mentor my whole life, and now other people get to experience that same thing.”
For Phillip, giving people room to advance is the only way to retain good talent.
“I’ve worked for guys who kept you down,” Phillip says. “If a manager holds you down, you’re going to look somewhere else. As a leader, you have to make sure your team has room to learn and grow. The more they know, the easier it is on everyone.”
“I always tell Dakota, ‘I wouldn’t have done it that way, but it works. How did you do that, so I know how to do it like you next time?’ ... keep the door open so the next generation can grow by trying things their way.”
Not Your Grandpa’s Hog Farm
While stockmanship remains rooted in pig care, the tools of the trade have changed dramatically. Phillip is quick to credit Dakota—who brought management experience from the automotive sector back to the farm in 2018—with helping modernize their systems.
“Dad doesn’t get in the way of change and technology,” Dakota says. “He may take a little more time to learn those new technologies, but he’s not afraid of it.”
One gamechanger has been SwineTech’s PigFlow system. Every crew member carries a smart device that tracks daily tasks, shares real-time records and instantly translates messages between English and Spanish.
“Dakota often does things differently than I do,” Phillip adds. “But he will get the same result. I always tell him, ‘I wouldn’t have done it that way, but it works. How did you do that, so I know how to do it like you next time?’ Maybe his way is better, or maybe not. But keep the door open so the next generation can grow by trying things their way.”
That technological evolution extends to the animals themselves.
“It’s not your grandpa’s hog farm,” Phillip says. “Years ago, animals were treated more like a commodity. Today, ventilation controllers keep barns comfortable year-round, and we handle pigs with much more care. You don’t walk with sorting rods anymore. Sows walk down the hallway at their own pace, and you can walk right through them. They know they’re safe.”
The Barn Hero
Despite overseeing tens of thousands of pigs and dozens of employees, Phillip views his recognition with typical Midwestern humility.
“A barn hero is the one who’s doing their job just because they love it,” Suzi says. “They don’t really know when time in or time out is. They’re here to do the job, whatever it takes.”
For Phillip, being recognized as a barn hero was unexpected, but the validation hits home.
“It caught me off guard,” Phillip says. “I just get up and go to work; that’s how I was raised. I never expect anything for it, but it’s a good feeling to know somebody noticed you worked hard and tried to make a difference.”
