In a competitive industry like the U.S. pork business, it’s important to reflect and learn from your experiences. The experts featured each quarter in the State of the Pork Industry Report share four ways they grew from experiences they went through in 2024.
1. We’re in the people business.
One thing that Adam Annegers, sow production manager at JBS, is taking with him from lessons learned in 2024 is how to relate to people in the barn.
“We all have protocol books. Every company has them. You can read the protocol, ask a few questions and go out in the barn. But one thing we tried last year was an ‘extreme farrowing makeover.’”
For three weeks, Annegers and the production team worked side by side with the entire farrowing team. It was very structured and organized, playing people’s strengths against each other, he explains.
“Not everybody is great at everything, but we figured out who’s our really good monitor, who’s our really good day one person, who does really good with sow care and on down the line,” he says. “At first, it was kind of organized chaos. The farm staff was nervous that all these people were in the farm with them. The manager was really uptight and nervous. But by the third day, we were really able to teach that team how to be efficient and prioritize things. That really put the icing on the cupcake.”
Prior to the extreme farrowing makeover, that farm weaned 11.9 pigs per litter and just last week, they weaned 13.2.
“How we need to teach and approach our teams is different than the old Gen X guys that we are,” Annegers adds. “This made me look in the mirror and ask myself, ‘What can I do differently to help that next generation of the industry?”
2. Don’t make it complicated.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about this question: what is the center of our industry?” says Pipestone veterinarian Cara Haden.
After reading through some National Pork Board data about pork consumption in the U.S., Haden admits she was a little discouraged. Boomers ate a lot of pork. Millennials eat much less. Generation Z eats half as much as millennials.
“In this recent downturn, we realized that no matter how low the pork prices go, that’s not necessarily going to drive pork purchasing from millennials and Gen Z,” Haden says. “As we move into 2025 as an industry and personally, I think we need to ask ourselves how we can help change the industry.”
Right now, the industry is very focused on production. Haden says it’s time to change that perspective to be more customer focused.
“What can we do to become relevant to millennials and Gen Z consumers? I got to sit in on a great presentation from Dr. Candace Croney from Purdue. One of the things she talked about is that the consumer wants to know the pig lived a good life. Don’t make it any more complicated than that. That’s going to be my focus this year – trying to centralize our industry around something other than production numbers. Let’s think about what the consumer wants and tell the story of pigs living a good life.”
3. Speed up and slow down.
Randy Kuker, director of swine production for The Equity, learned two contradictory messages in 2024: speed up and slow down.
“Speed up making decisions and communicating with key stakeholders within your company,” he says.
Last summer, they came across a health challenge in the barns. They manage pigs with different health statuses, so when problems arise, Kuker says it’s important to act quick.
“Switching that pellet to a meal to try to reduce the number of ulcers is important,” he explains. “We had that issue happen this summer, and we learned from that. We were quick on some and not as quick as we needed to be on some others.”
He learned the ‘slow down’ lesson when they transitioned a couple barns to a different producer.
“Our team was really happy with how healthy these pigs were from this producer,” Kuker says. “Even though there weren’t as many health issues (and shots) to deal with, there was still opportunity.”
Getting them to slow down and be more observant, looking for new things they haven’t looked for before, was key, he adds. In this case, Kuker taught them to slow down and keep an eye out for strep by looking for swollen joints.
“When you’ve got 165 pigs in a pen, you don’t have time to stop and look at every joint on every pig, but you need to look for different things than what you were looking for before,” he says. “If that pig isn’t moving away from you as you enter the pen and trying to escape, or if it’s not trying to move with the rest of the group and it’s lagging behind, that’s a pig you need to take a closer look at.”
4. The strong shall survive.
The past two years have been incredibly challenging for U.S. pork producers. Of all the lessons Brad Eckberg, account executive at MTech Systems, learned in 2024, this one stands out in his mind as he reflects on the challenges the industry has faced.
“If you’re sitting in a good position today, good job, especially coming out of 2024,” Eckberg says. “But we need to keep in mind there will be another downward cycle in the future. Unfortunately, it’s not if, but when will it happen? How will you withstand the next slide economically?”
He says producers need to keep adapting. Whether it’s pen gestation, antibiotic-free, Prop 12, just remember to consider all options to stay viable.
“We might not be a fan of some of these production practices, but there could be a financial benefit to it,” Eckberg says. “Maybe it’s time I build a mill or buy a feed mill, consolidate areas where I’m raising pigs or be more efficient from a medication usage standpoint. This industry has its ebbs and flows, and you need to prepare for it. Learn from your past experiences so that in the future you can avoid those bad mistakes and be better guided with those that were good.”
Watch or listen to their entire discussion ranging from PRRS and labor turnover to third-party Prop 12 audits and influenza on YouTube. These experts share their perspective on what’s been happening on farms in Q4 2024 and takeaways for producers to consider in 2025.
Catch up on past State of the Pork Industry Reports.
