During a time when many people were cutting back and trying to minimize expenses, Joel Huber decided it was time to invest in facility improvements to help their operation be more competitive.
As part of a sow co-op, the owners knew change needed to happen despite the challenging marketplace.
“We are always interested in growing,” Huber says. “We are on a slower path to growth than some. We have a niche of making our own feed, growing our own pigs, and hauling our own manure. We want to be efficient and grow at a sustained pace.”
The owners knew they had room to improve when it came to production, health and efficiency.
“We were not happy with results on pig health and pigs per sow per year (PSY),” Huber says. “We decided, ‘Hey, this is a risk, but it’s a risk we need to take to reach the performance numbers we want to attain.’”
Time for Change
The sow co-op’s 15-year-old facilities were showing signs of age, he explains.
“We had constant disease problems,” Huber says. “We decided to implement modern technology in the filters, and bring in a new sow herd and repop it with healthy genetics.”
The process was expensive and time-consuming, but he says it was worth it.
Huber engaged veterinarians at Carthage System to research best practices and advise them on decisions.
“I think the team was able to step back and begin with the end in mind,” says Shaun McGinn, chief operating officer for Professional Swine Management, part of the Carthage System. “The facility needed a major remodel, so money had to be spent regardless. They looked at data of different filtration systems and what would work best for their facility and their longer-term vision. Filtration made sense.”
The hardest decisions were determining which filtering system to use and whether or not to do the repop.
“Our veterinarians didn’t think we needed to do the repop because of cost,” Huber says. “But we decided we were going to go all the way.”
Was it Worth It?
The process wasn’t easy, and Huber says there were struggles.
“We learned a lot,” he says. “For example, you can’t spray from the inside of the ceilings before 10 a.m. because the humidity won’t let the spray foam stick. That process ended up taking twice as long as it should. I felt sorry for the poor guys up there in the attic.”
They added new fans, controls and electrical. Overall, the farm had to do what was best for them in the long run, not only what was best for right now.
“Long-term gains can offset short-term losses,” McGinn says. “For example, the farm had no pigs for eight weeks and had to not only pay for renovation costs, but a whole new
inventory cost. These owners recognized that 25 PSY long term was not going to keep them competitive in the business. You can offset no pigs for eight weeks with better production on the backside of repopulation.”
The sow unit is doing much better, Huber says, and is turning out healthier, more robust pigs downstream.
“My dad always said you had to watch if you were on the bleeding edge or cutting edge,” he explains. “We’ve taken some risks, but they’ve been calculated. The concept of being aggressive but not overaggressive has worked well for us. We want to try to do things a little better than everyone else.”
Your Next Read: How an Iowa Family is Passing on the Farm from One Generation to the Next
