PORK Perspectives: A Minute with Dari Brown, Page 2
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PORK Perspectives is a recurring column that provides business and leadership strategy tips from some of the pork industry’s finest. Meet Dari Brown, senior director – livestock technical innovation for Purina Animal Nutrition.
Q. What do you enjoy most about your job?
A. That’s easy – the people. This industry is like a family. I love going to our hog meetings – World Pork Expo is one of my favorite events. You get to see all your buddies. You do business when you need to do business, but ultimately, it’s a really good atmosphere. I’m a very big people person.
Q. What advice do you have for someone who might like to do what you do someday?
A. Take on different opportunities and challenges. Learn from the people around you. Take in what you can and let that help build you. I believe the success I’ve had in my career is because of those mentors I had early on. Continue to ask people how you are doing and how can you improve. Asking and taking feedback about your own development is critical – that helps you continue to evolve. Don’t take feedback as a negative. Take it as a blessing.
Q. What concerns do you have about the swine industry?
A. We have a good understanding of present disease pressures. We need to make sure we have a clear understanding of how we can improve biosecurity and take precautions to protect our pigs from these diseases. Our industry does a great job of getting information out about how this can impact our business. We need to challenge each other to keep learning and make sure we are thinking of new technologies and new vaccines that could help us in the future. We need to be more proactive than reactive.
Planting a tree in Brown's honor at a progressive dairy farm in Kericho, Kenya, where she works with them on nutrition and management.
Q. What are the greatest opportunities in the swine industry today?
A. One of the challenges we are facing – that may also be an opportunity – is the restriction on ractopamine from our slaughterhouses. I believe this is a great opportunity to look at how we raise pork differently. Are there other technologies or natural alternatives we can utilize to improve efficiency and performance of animals? We need to think differently and challenge ourselves about how we can improve performance of that animal, whether it’s through genetics, nutrition or management. The next challenge may be no antibiotics. So, how are we preparing ourselves now so if that day does come, we are ready for it? I think these are challenges, but also great opportunities to understand more of the science and the art of what we do with pig rearing. For me as a scientist, it's really exciting.
Q. What service do you provide your customers?
A. We provide many services from ration balancing to developing and launching new nutrition products and programs. We work tightly with our nutritional counterparts in the field to optimize performance of animals on the farm. We strive to understand each group we work with in order to bring the right value to them.
Q. What will the business look like 20 years from now?
A. We will continue to see the evolution of larger integrators and larger businesses. We’ll need to look at our business in a different way as that evolves. For us, that may mean developing more additives that can serve those customers. Technology will continue to develop. More regulations will come. We need to be ready with unique ideas and solutions. I believe this will drive the future and how we go about our business.
Q. If you could go back and do something differently in your career, what would it be and why?
A. I have been fortunate that my path has led me to where I am now. I always encourage younger people that taking a different route than planned can evolve into one of the best jobs you’ve had and lead you to where you ultimately want to go. But we can't always see that. I've had a lot of changes in my career, and what got me through those changes was being open to learning and understanding from others in that field so I could be successful, too.
More from Farm Journal's PORK:
PORK Perspectives: A Minute with Mark Bienhoff
PORK Perspectives: A Minute with Frank Brummer
