What makes a barn hero? AgriTalk’s host Chip Flory visited with Farm Journal’s PORK editor, Jennifer Shike and our first featured barn hero, Summer Doty, who is the farrowing manager at Islercrest Farms in Ohio.
“I think perhaps the most important stories that we need to talk about are the stories of the people that are in the barn working hard every day to make sure that our pigs have the absolute best environment possible to be raised up in and are really working hard to be able to make sure that pork production is efficient, and meets all of the goals that we’re trying to reach every day,” Shike says.
As the farrowing manager, Doty works in one of the sow units, taking care of all the gestating, lactating and farrowing sows.
“Putting sow health and sow happiness above all else in the barn is priority number one,” Doty shares.
It’s very cool to get to know some of the young people that are coming into the industry and that are working hard and making a real contribution to the success on the farms, Flory points out.
“Our barn heroes we’re featuring all have different paths that they’ve taken, but they’re all making a huge impact in the barns that they work in,” Shike says. “Summer may be young, but her experience and her perspective and her attention to detail, make her a hero and she is very special on their farm,” Shike says.
Doty always had a love of animals, showed pigs while growing up and attended college for an animal science degree. That experience made her familiar with raising pigs, but she admits she wasn’t sure what she expected starting to work for a large-scale commercial operation.
“It’s definitely different than what I thought coming in for the first time,” she says. “I didn’t really know what commercial scale agriculture really was, or what I would be doing day-to-day. But I’ve really gotten used to it. And I think most people can’t judge it looking from the outside. You almost have to be inside the barn at least once or twice to really get a feel for what goes on here and what we do.”
Flory was curious how her first day on the job was.
“You’re trailing around learning everything at once,” Doty says. “And if you retain 20% of it, that’s a great second day.”
There’s always so much to learn, but Doty can’t see herself doing anything else but caring for animals.
“I think it’s something that I will always participate in and I can see it being a career for myself,” she says.
It’s important for the industry to reach out to young people who are showing livestock and try to get them excited to come back into production ag.
“She knew she loved pigs and had the opportunity to show them and raise a few,” Shike says. “It’s just how do we tie into more of those young people who really have a knack and a gift for working with animals and bring them into commercial production. We’ve got to help them find themselves and see themselves in those roles.”
The Barn Hero series highlights what is so great about the pork industry. The people.
“I’ve really enjoyed going to the barns and getting to follow our Barn Heroes around and just getting a chance to see them doing what they do every day,” Shike says. “When you go through the barn and follow her around, it’s funny to watch the sows, they just love her. When she walks in, they respond.”
If you know a barn hero who deserves recognition, email us at jshike@farmjournal.com.
Listen to the full episode:
We will be uniting together June 3-8 for PORK Week across all of our Farm Journal platforms to elevate the important role the pork industry plays in feeding the world. Share your stories and post photos on social media using #PORKWeek to help us honor the pork industry. From “AgDay TV” to “AgriTalk” to “U.S. Farm Report” to PorkBusiness.com and everything in between, tune in and join us as we acknowledge the most noble profession there is: feeding people.
Check out our Barn Heroes Series:
