Barn Heroes

From Storm Ruin to 'Barn Hero': How Partnership and Family Fuel This Indiana Pig Farm

Fri, 15 May 2026 13:05:32 GMT

When the barn alarm screeches in the middle of the night, every pig farmer feels an ache deep in his gut. There was no way Kameron Donaldson could have prepared for what he saw back in 2013 when the sheriff deputy drove him up to the site of his new finishing barn.

With power lines snapping like firecrackers on the Fourth of July, he was grateful for the officer who came upon the scene after a devastating windstorm flattened his livelihood. With the patrol car’s lights beaming on the scene, all Donaldson could see were shards of glass, twisted metal and splintered wood.

All he could think was, “This is bad.” His quad buildings were in ruins.

Through the pouring rain and striking lightning, he knew he had to act fast to get the pigs moved to a better location.

“One half of one building was basically gone – no roof or even lumber on one end,” Donaldson recalls. “The other building just collapsed and basically laid down on the gates. The unbelievable part is that, of the 8,000 50-lb. pigs in the buildings, only 20 died during the storm from debris falling on them.”

(Kameron Donaldson)

A Convoy of Support

Overwhelmed doesn’t even begin to describe how Donaldson felt the next morning as the sun rose over the wreckage and revealed the true damage. But he says it wasn’t because of the cleanup and hard decisions ahead. It was because of the convoy of pig farmers, neighbors and friends who showed up with bolt cutters, trailers and food.

As a contract grower for Dykhuis Farms, Donaldson was relieved that his barn supervisor was focused on finding spaces for the pigs so he could concentrate on getting pigs out of the buildings.

“We needed to move approximately 16 semi loads of pigs to new locations until the buildings could be repaired,” he says. “In the building that collapsed, the gates had to be cut because they were pinched by the ceiling that lay on top of them. Men were literally crawling on their hands and knees to move these pigs out of the pens.”

Some people moved debris. Others loaded pigs onto trailers. Some even hooked up the barn watering system to a firetruck so the pigs could drink.

“The support of our community meant so much to our family,” he says. “Everyone understood that this was a serious situation and did anything they could to help.”

The support the Donaldsons received after the storm is unforgettable. He says that is something he appreciates about being a contract grower — knowing you have a support team who is willing to help and solve problems alongside you whatever they may be.

(Kameron Donaldson)

The Power of Partnership

This crisis solidified Donaldson’s trust in Dykhuis Farms and the partnership model he uses today. He knows he is able to do more with the support Dykhuis Farms provides than if he were raising hogs independently.

Growing up on a grain and pig farming operation in Miami County, Ind., Donaldson was no stranger to the challenges of raising livestock. In 1996, his family exited the hog business. A few years later, he married his high school sweetheart, Hayley, who also grew up on a pig farm. It came as no surprise when the young couple decided contract finishing hogs would be a wise way to use some empty barns and bring in a little extra income so they could return to the farm full time.

A friend introduced them to Dykhuis Farms of Holland, Mich., and said they were a great group to work for, Donaldson recalls.

“Once I met the president at the time, Bob Dykhuis, I knew that was the direction I wanted to go,” he says. “They are a faith- and family-based farm operation. They were easy to connect with and that was important to me as I was getting my start. I’ve been with them ever since and never regretted it.”

In addition to great health and technical support, Dykhuis Farms offers an incentive opportunity for growers who maintain a daily log of data and performance records. Examples range from recording barn temperatures to vaccinations to death loss.

“They keep numbers on virtually everything they can keep numbers on,” he says. “When you have a good group, and you’ve done your paperwork, you may receive a certain dollar amount per head bonus.”

One of the advantages of feeding hogs for a company is the number of people you meet along the way, Donaldson says. Whether it’s truck drivers other hog growers, he says it opens up your world to opportunities you never knew were possible.

(Don Green)

That incentive to reach high standards is motivating, he says. It feels good to be affirmed for doing exceptional work in the barn. He focuses attention on indicators of barn performance, including ventilation, feed and water systems, to make sure the pig has the best environment possible.

“I appreciate that they are open about numbers and share those across the company,” Donaldson points out. “It allows you to compare and see where you sit with other growers. That’s important for me to be at the top. If we are a little weak in an area, I focus on that pretty hard.”

The Discipline of Daily Care

Although many things have changed since he started feeding hogs 19 years ago, like technology and finishing weights, the most important things are still the most important things.

“A successful contract grower needs to be observant,” he says. “You need to slow down enough to take a good look at the pigs and observe them. How are they feeling? Good growers can go in a barn and get a sense real quick if something’s off.”

He says it starts with a passion to want the pigs to do well because it’s the right thing to do for the pig. But it also makes his job easier, too.

“Being a contract grower takes a lot of hard work,” Donaldson adds. “Success doesn’t happen overnight. It takes many years of doing the work, day in and day out, before you get your expenses covered. But even when you are starting to make a little money, you must always think about reinvesting because the barn is going to need maintenance.”

The Donaldson farm consists of pigs, corn, soybeans and wheat and is staffed mostly by Donaldson, Hayley and their son, Keagan. They also have two daughters, Kendra and Kayden, who put in hours in the barn when needed. His father, now 68, still works on his own farm every day and helps with the grain side of Donaldson’s farm.

“We load out most of our own pigs ourselves,” Donaldson says. “We have hired help to come in to do the sorting and the washing of the barns, but on the day-to-day chore stuff, it’s myself and family members.”

Working alongside his son, Keegan, on the farm is a privilege, Donaldson says.

(Don Green)

Working with family members means a lot to Donaldson, who views it as a great opportunity to teach his children and pass on values.

“They always say, “A family that prays together stays together.’ But a family that sells pigs together? Now that’s a challenge,” Donaldson laughs. “I’ve learned to be more patient. If our kids see that I can get it done without a forceful nature, and it’s just as effective or even quicker, they may take that approach the next time, too.”

One of his expectations in the barn is observance.

“Use all your senses when you’re in there,” Donaldson says. “Use your eyes to look for potential feeder adjustments, pig problems and things like that. Keep your ears open. Can you hear a pig breathing hard? Use every sense you can to be observant. When you do that, you’ll be able to make sure the pigs are in the best environment for growth possible.”

Securing the Future

Hayley works on the farm with her husband every day. From loading pigs to driving the tractor to handling the farm’s paperwork, Donaldson says she can do it all.

“Working with your spouse can have its challenges, and that’s mostly my fault,” he says. “There’s not much of a buffer zone. If something’s not going well when I come in for lunch, she’s the person who gets an earful.”

(Don Green)

However, their joint desire to see the farm succeed and provide opportunities for future generations to be on the farm aligns their purpose and helps cover the daily stresses of farm life. It’s also why they’ve prioritized succession planning.

“We wanted to have something in place as our operation grew,” he says. “Once we started that process, that encouraged my dad to do the same. My dad thought you had to have every detail worked out. And that’s just not true when it comes to succession planning.”

The first step is starting with something, Donaldson says. He reached out to an attorney who specializes in farm succession plans to help devise a strategy for the future of their farm business.

“Even though we knew our lawyer, she still wanted to spend time talking to us to understand the ‘heartbeat’ of our family,” he says. “She wanted to understand each family member’s role on and off the farm.”

Once his dad realized the process wasn’t that difficult, and he could make changes to the plan along the way, he softened to the idea and went through the process to set up his own trust for his farming operation.

“He has peace now knowing that the land he owns will continue, and whether it’s me or my son, we will rent off of the trust and continue to farm his land,” Donaldson says.

A True Barn Hero

Donaldson’s stewardship of the animals and the environment is noteworthy. His desire to be more efficient and make the pigs’ lives the best possible is one of the reasons why Caton Howard, a fieldman for Dykhuis Farms, calls Donaldson a barn hero.

“Kameron always does things the right way and in a timely manner, which can be a struggle with contract growers,” Howard says. “He cares for the pigs daily like they are his own and keeps his facilities in pristine condition. He also maintains the barns like they are brand new.”

Kameron and Hayley Donaldson wouldn’t be where they are today without the examples their fathers set for them to work hard and prioritize animal care.

(Don Green)

In addition, the family’s decision to do all their own loading is becoming a bit of a rarity, Howard says. He believes this shows their determination to be the best and provide the best care for the pigs.

“I really enjoy working with Kameron and cherish the conversations we have about pigs,” Howard says. “He helps motivate me to always strive to do better every day.”

Jason Klein, manager at Dykhuis Farms, says many obstacles in the pork business can be overcome by simply executing the basics really well day after day. He believes Donaldson represents a guy who does this well.

“Everything on the site works like it’s supposed to, and chores are done every day like they are supposed to be done,” Klein says. “There is never any drama or surprises with Kameron Donaldson. He owns and manages all his responsibilities really well. He takes pride in what he does. It’s obvious every time I talk with him that he’s truly glad to be a farmer.

Donaldson recognizes his success is not his alone, and without his team, including his family and the crew at Dykhuis Farms, he wouldn’t be where he is today. He is proud to be called a barn hero.

“We want to keep doing a good job for Dykhuis Farms and make sure the finished product is in line with what they started,” Donaldson says.

Hayley believes this is possible because of her husband’s superpower – making things happen.

“He’s good at doing a lot of things,” she says. “He pays great attention to detail. If something needs done, we all rally around him and do what he says we need to do.”

This system works well for the Donaldson family.

“It’s a good life,” he says. “Farming is hard to get into, but if you have an opportunity to work with somebody who is already in operation, go for it. There are always farmers looking for people willing to work on a farm, especially on the animal side. I don’t think people realize how many opportunities may be out there with farmers who don’t have a succession plan or children wanting to take over the farming operation. It takes some time to find, but it’s worth it.”

Barn Hero Hannah Bevins Proves the World is Run by People Who Show Up

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 21:56:43 GMT

Growing up in a family of 10, Hannah Bevins is no stranger to hard work and collaboration. In fact, it’s what she lives for every day. Whether she’s chasing her kids around or leading her team in the barns, it’s obvious she’s all in.

“I watched my dad work his nine-to-five job and then come home and work on our farm until bedtime,” she says. “As they say: ‘The world is run by people who show up.’ I learned at a very young age that you’re going to show up and do your best. My dad always said when one of us was hired, our employer would always get more than what they paid for.”

As the senior supervisor for Tyson Foods’ genetic nucleus farm in Wetumka, Okla., Bevins leads a team of eight staff and oversees 1,300 sows. From breeding and farrowing to selecting replacement gilts for internal replacements and multiplier farms, she sets out to provide the utmost care for the animals and people under her watch every day.

“Hannah truly cares about what she does,” says Kenny Romero, POD business manager for The Pork Group with Tyson Foods. “She is constantly monitoring the welfare and well-being of the animals on the farm. She also does an excellent job letting her team know she cares for them and wants what is best for them as well.”

In Romero’s mind, that’s one of the many reasons Bevins is worthy of being called a barn hero.

Though she admits she feels undeserving of this title, she’s proud of how far she’s come in the pork industry.

“My team and I work very hard to be successful,” Bevins says. “I could go out into my barns and grab eight more barn heroes right now.”

An Unorthodox Journey

Bevins didn’t grow up around pigs, but she did grow up on a hobby farm where she was homeschooled until high school.

“The land was our classroom,” she says. “I’ve had a love for agriculture and the country way of life from the beginning.”

After attending Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, she transferred to Oklahoma State University to obtain a degree in animal science. She intended to find a career in bovine embryo transfer. However, during the summer between her junior and senior year, she interned with Seaboard Foods and uncovered a passion for the pork industry.

“I honestly took that internship just for the credit and notch in the belt,” she says. “But I ended up falling in love with it. After I graduated, I took a job with Seaboard in western Oklahoma for a few years.”

In 2015, she took a few years off to stay home with her young children before returning to the pork industry in 2018 when she discovered an opportunity to work closer to her home for Tyson as an assistant farm manager.

Working up the ranks has helped Bevins in a few ways. Most importantly, it has allowed her to better understand the roles she is training her team to do.

“I have a good perspective of what every job requires,” Bevins explains. “It’s also helped me understand the people better, too, because I know what I expect out of a leader when I’m in those roles.”

Safety First

Joe Locke, Tyson’s director of operations, says Bevin’s leadership impact is noteworthy. He adds that her farm has gone more than two years without losing an employee and 10 years without an injury. That’s partially due to the emphasis her team places on biosecurity and safety.

“Not only are we trying to keep our pigs safe, we’re trying to keep our people safe,” Bevins says. “Having those conversations with team members and making sure that we’re doing things in the safest way possible is important. If we have a big task to do for the day, we’re talking about it beforehand and identifying potential safety issues. We all want to go home in the same condition we got to work in.”

Her crew has been together for a long time. They often joke that they spend more time with each other than they do with their families. She thinks the strength of their team starts with good communication and making sure they are all on the same page and working toward the same goals.

“One of the best things I can do for my team is to help them see the big picture and their role in it,” Bevins says. “Everybody will show up to work for a paycheck, but people will really get passionate for the job if they understand why they are doing what they are doing.”

In addition to good education and proper training, she says it’s important for team members to understand their role and receive credit when they do a good job.

“Make sure they get the pat on the back when deserved so they understand, ‘Hey, this is because of you. We can do what we do because you do what you do,’” she says. “That’s a great way to get people to give it their best on the job.”

Her approach works, Romero says.

“Hannah’s team always responds very well to her and are extremely loyal,” Romero says. “I believe this is because they know she cares for them as people and not just a team member. She’s a great example for young supervisors in our industry.”

What Leads to Success in the Barn?

Being observant is one of the most valuable traits she looks for in a team member. In her mind, that’s not only being very situationally aware but also being able to notice anything that’s out of place.

“When you’re in these barns, the animals aren’t going to verbally tell you if something is wrong,” Bevins says. “But they will give cues, and you have to be able to pick up on those cues the animals are giving you.”

She says being a mom gives her a little leg up in this area.

“That nurturing and caring side is instinctively part of me when I walk into the barn,” Bevins says. “Whether I’m taking care of kids or pigs, it’s the same. I’m making sure that they’re fed, healthy, comfortable and that all of their needs are being met. It’s understanding what they need and prioritizing it.”

The animals come first. Locke says that is one of Bevins’ superpowers. She makes sure the environment of the farm is the best it can be for the animals and people in all aspects, he adds.

“It doesn’t matter if there’s a foot of snow on the ground or not, we’re coming in and we’re checking on our animals,” Bevins says. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Christmas morning, we’re coming in and checking on our animals. From a production standpoint, you’re not going to be successful if you don’t have a herd that’s taken care of. Animal welfare must be at the top of your list.”

Locke also says her leadership extends far beyond her own team and the nucleus farm.

“Hannah is unique because she’s very process-driven, data- and detail-oriented and very outgoing,” Locke says. “Her farm is always at the top, which pushes the envelope in two ways: They show others what is possible and drive genetic change.”

Do Scary Things

There’s no question that Bevins values a hard day’s work. She thinks raising pigs and guiding her team every day is a rewarding way to live. She’s recently joined the Oklahoma Pork Council as a board member to give back to the industry.

“I consider myself very fortunate to be a part of this industry,” she says. “Every person you meet in the pork industry has an amazing story to tell, and they’re such good people. I’m honored to be a part of it.”

But for those who may need a little more convincing, she offers up this advice: Don’t be scared to do something scary.

“That sounds dumb, but if an opportunity presents itself, put yourself out there and take it,” Bevins says. “You don’t know what you don’t know, but sometimes you stumble across something while you’re just expecting to check a box and put it on the resume. Then, before you know it, it ends up being your path. Be willing to take the jump even when it scares you.”

With fewer people growing up on a farm, let alone a swine farm, the unknown is a definite factor working against young people discovering careers in the pork industry.

“We live in a world where comfort is king. Everybody wants to be comfortable,” Bevins adds. “It may be uncomfortable to try something new, but from my perspective, this industry allows me to put my strengths and passions to work in a way that brings meaning to my life every day.”

Leading with Heart: The Story of Hoosierland Pork’s Jennifer Romero

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 19:34:00 GMT

It started off as a minor inconvenience: Who doesn’t have back pain when they work on a farm all day?

Jennifer Romero brushed it off because she didn’t have time for it. As the Hoosierland Pork sow farm manager for Martin Family Farms, she knew her team needed her to be strong. But as spring turned to summer, the pain continued to escalate.

After multiple doctor visits, tests with no answers and excruciating pain, she knew something was wrong. A trip to the emergency room followed by hospital admission finally resulted in a diagnosis: cancer.

Romero immediately went to Indianapolis where she underwent surgery. Unfortunately, the cancer had progressed and spread throughout her body. When she came out of anesthesia, doctors told her they couldn’t get it all.

“I remember when I was little, and we were under a tornado warning,” says her daughter, Alyssa Wyatt, who is also part of the Hoosierland Pork team. “My mom had the front door open — cleaning and listening to music. She had no fear of the storm and told me, ‘When it’s my time to go, it’s my time to go.’”

Fun is one of the many words Jennifer Romero’s family uses to describe her. She loved finding ways to make people laugh and brought out the best in her team. Her desire to see them succeed in their life helped her succeed in hers, says her husband, Azael.

(Hoosierland Pork)

Gone Too Soon

Within three weeks of being admitted, Romero passed away in the hospital Aug. 17.

“It happened so fast,” says Melissa Bradford, a friend and operations coordinator for Martin Family Farms. “One day she was mowing here at the farm. Two days later, she went to the emergency room and was admitted to the hospital. Three weeks later, she was gone. We were all in shock because she was so full of life — a force to be reckoned with.”

Brian Martin, owner of Martin Family Farms, was in the hospital with Romero about a week before Romero passed away.

“While I was there, a young employee named Carlos was also visiting. He came to the farm as a TN visa worker,” Martin says. “Jennifer really took him under her wing. He thought the world of her. Watching her interact with him, and how affected Carlos was by seeing her in the hospital, was pretty humbling to me.”

(Mike Byers)

During that visit, she made it perfectly clear that her job was not up for grabs yet.

“Don’t replace me, because I’ll be going back,” Romero told him matter-of-factly.

For her husband, Azael Romero, operations manager for Martin Family Farms, his wife’s attitude and strength during her hospital battle is something he will never forget.

“She stayed positive the whole entire time,” Azael says. “She was such a strong woman.”

One Day at a Time

Azael joined Martin Family Farms in 2009 when they more than doubled the operation, working his way up to operations manager overseeing all farms. Romero, his “city girl” wife, followed a few years later and had moved up to sow farm manager of Hoosierland Pork where she led a team of 18 people and managed 4,000 sows at two locations that shipped 2,000 pigs a week.

“She always wanted me to succeed, and I wanted her to succeed,” Azael says. “Our professional and personal relationship centered around communication. Work wise, she knew her role and I knew mine. We had great understanding of the jobs we both needed to get done.”

A competitive spirit drove Jennifer Romero to continually improve Hoosierland Pork. She was constantly motivated to improve animal care and productivity.

(Hoosierland Pork)

Even though her team was at a loss on how to move forward without their leader, they had to find a way.

“You felt insensitive going about your work when everyone’s heart was so broken,” Bradford says. “However, we knew we had to keep going. The animals needed us, and she would have wanted us to focus on them first. But it was really hard to come to work that next week.”

A True Barn Hero

In the eyes of all who knew Jennifer, she was the definition of a barn hero. Martin says her passionate and driven nature made her perfect for the role of leading a successful team in the sow barn.

“She would do anything to save a pig,” Azael says. “She tried to pass that on by teaching others everything she knew while constantly soaking in more knowledge along the way. She was a quick learner and started from the bottom delivering supplies, checking sows, scraping feeders, power washing and all those things. She didn’t want to miss a step in the entire process. That’s why she was so good at her job.”

(Mike Byers)

Bradford remembers when a coronavirus struck the farm, Romero was determined to eliminate it immediately.

“The vets told her she may be better off to wait, and she said, ‘We’re going to do this one time, and we’re going to get it out,’” Bradford says. “And she did. Her farm was able to eradicate it, and the vets said they’d never seen a farm get rid of a virus so fast. But that’s how she was; she didn’t just say things. She was out in the barns showing how to do it.”

Romero was also known to wake up in the middle of the night to drive out to the farm and check on an animal.

“Even though she had 4,000 animals under her care, she wanted to make sure she did everything possible to try to save each one,” Bradford says.

Loving-But-Firm Mentor

Not only did she have a huge heart for taking care of animals, but she also had a huge heart for taking care of people.

“Jennifer was a direct communicator; there was not much floweriness about her,” Martin says. “She was a ‘get business done’ person who served as a great mentor, but she also was a mother at heart and shared that with everyone.”

If she believed in something, everybody would soon believe in it, Bradford adds.

“When Jennifer was a farrowing lead, she was fast-paced,” Bradford explains. “If she felt like you weren’t living up to that speed, she would bark orders. But over time, she learned and began to understand that not everybody was made like her, and everybody processes differently. That allowed her to be able to see other people’s perspective better and figure out a solution to get things done as a team.”

With time, Romero learned she had to balance her desire to constantly improve with some time to celebrate the success her team achieved. She firmly believed in team building and investing in people.

(Mike Byers)

“I remember her saying, ‘We spend more time together than you probably do with your family, so we need to learn how to work as a team so we can get through any challenge,’” Bradford says.

The work of a barn hero is never complete, Martin adds. It’s a job that just doesn’t end.

“Things won’t ever be perfect, but Jennifer’s leadership was close,” he says. “She helped 18 folks see the same vision day to day while always having an eye on continued improvement. She also recognized we have to balance taking care of pigs with a life outside of it. You can’t do 18 hours a day in a farm and balance a life next to it, so through time, she helped herself and others achieve that balance.”

A Second Family

One of the ways she went above and beyond for her team was looking out for the TN visa workers as they adjusted to life in the U.S. Romero was known to take her team to the grocery store or help them get to doctor’s appointments.

“She always took time to explain the differences between our culture and where they came from,” Bradford says. “She taught them things about living in the U.S. that we take for granted.”

Jorge Ayala started working for Martin Family Farms in December 2018 and vividly recalls meeting Romero for the first time.

“She was always available to help me learn,” Ayala says. “Animal care was her highest priority. She was strict, but she was very kind. I learned a lot of things from her that have positioned me where I am now.”

A lover of all animals, Jennifer Romero was famous for saying, “We choose to be here. They don’t. We need to make sure we do right by them.” Her example walking the barns and seeing every animal set a great example for her entire team about what it means to be a barn hero.

(Hoosierland Pork)

Life to the Fullest

One of the most valuable lessons Wyatt learned from her mother was that you can’t always control what life throws at you, but you can control how you react to it.

“Hardship made her into the person she was,” Wyatt says. “She understood that life would always be life. She found a way to make the best of it always — no matter how hard it could be.”

She found joy in living it to her fullest. Whether she was riding a horse or driving a four-wheeler around the farm, she always wanted to make you smile, Azael says.

“My mom was a needle in the haystack, a diamond in the rough,” Wyatt says. “She was big-hearted and helped everyone she could, even if she did not get the credit. She didn’t do things to receive things; she did things to bring happiness to others. She always tried to make the impossible possible in this world — she was a hero.”

Every Pig, Every Day: Barn Hero Courtney Case Raises the Bar

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 15:08:38 GMT

Courtney Case is inspired every day to do her small part to feed the world and make sure it’s done the right way on the sow farm she manages. Her first priority is caring for the sows, but building a positive culture for her team is a close second.

As people become further removed from the farm, they may struggle to understand modern livestock production practices. But Courtney Case says it’s simple. Every day she tries to make life better inside of the barn for the sows and pigs in her care. Her biggest frustration is hearing people use the words “factory farm” as it completely misrepresents what she does every day. For Case, raising pigs is all about individual care for each pig every day.

“A big part of my job is making observations on what’s working well and what can we improve on,” says Case, who manages Smiling Porker Sow Farm, a 5,000-sow farm in Morris, Pa. “Every day our team makes sure that every pig is getting feed and water, that the air quality is excellent and vaccines are up to date. We make sure they get everything they need at every stage of their life.”

It’s not about checking a box, Case says.

“I come to work to do my small part to feed the world,” she explains. “I work with animal protein. They will feed us, and I am going to ensure they have the best life possible.”

Her commitment to care for every pig and for every person on her team makes Case a barn hero who sets a high bar that others strive to reach each day.

City Girl Goes Country
Case didn’t grow up on a farm, but her parents found a way for her to be involved in the local 4-H program. Along the way, she learned how to care for animals and showed dairy cattle and pigs.

“One of my 4-H leaders went to Delaware Valley University and got a degree in animal science,” Case says. “I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, but I loved working with animals. I thought I wanted to be a vet or a nutritionist, so I decided to pursue an animal science degree at Delaware Valley University.”

While she was in college, she interned with Country View Family Farms (CVFF) the summer before her senior year. That internship changed her life, she says. The 20-year-old at the time realized she could make a living doing something she loved – caring for animals.

“The funny thing is, I had never been on a commercial-sized pig farm before that internship,” Case says. “But I knew I liked pigs. When I showed up to the 1,400-sow farm, which is now small to me, I remember looking into the gestation barn and thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, what am I signing up for?’”

What she believed would be overwhelming didn’t feel that way for long. Case’s experience helped her realize opportunities she never dreamed were possible. CVFF offered her a job when she graduated early that December. On Jan. 4, 2011, she went to work as a technician on a farm in southern Pennsylvania and over time, moved up the chain of leadership until she landed in her current role as sow manager.

At Smiling Porker Sow Farm, she oversees the daily care of 5,000 sows on a “plus farm” that is California Prop 12 compliant. She also manages 20 team members, including one assistant manager, a breeding department lead and a farrowing department lead.

“A big part of my role is supporting my team in their roles and overseeing anything they might need, engaging them and getting the most out of our team,” she says. “It’s also about ensuring the safety of the team and the biosecurity of the sow farm.”

A Shifting Landscape
In the past 15 years, Case has experienced many changes in the pork industry. Perhaps the biggest change is the workforce.

“When I started, it was all local employees,” she says. “We all spoke the same language and were all from this area. That’s totally changed. I’m the minority in my farm now and most of my team members are international and speak Spanish.”

Case is not bilingual, though she can understand a little Spanish. She says building a team despite having a language barrier requires her to be resourceful and relentless in creating connection. She considers herself very fortunate to work with one of their company’s first international hires – Roberto Galindo – who now serves as the farrowing lead at Smiling Porker. He started working at the company through a visa program that hires employees from Mexico to work in the U.S.

“Roberto helps me if I need to communicate something beyond what I can do with Google Translate (which is a fantastic tool),” she says. “There could be a lot of stuff that doesn’t get said that needs to be said when you speak different languages. Even though it may be inconvenient or hard, you need to make the effort.”

Galindo says her efforts to bridge that gap are appreciated more than she knows.

“Courtney has spent years surrounded by Spanish-speaking coworkers, which has allowed her to understand the language quite well, even though she is not yet able to speak it,” Galindo says. “It would not surprise me if, in a few years, she becomes bilingual.”

Progressive Approach to Production
Case is proud to work for a company that is progressive, always on the cutting edge of things, trying to think ahead to what the industry and customers want.

“I consider myself very blessed to experience this type of an environment,” she says. “It can be a challenge in the moment, but it’s an awesome experience to have some of the things in place that we do today like antibiotic-free production, Prop 12 compliance and maternity crates. It’s a blessing in hindsight to have that experience in all of these different ways to manage sows.”

If she’s honest, most of these new management approaches didn’t come with an instruction book.

“A lot of it was trial and error,” Case says. “You have no idea what’s going to work or not going to work in real life. I mean, conceptually, it can be great. But we have to apply it and then figure out how we can make it work to fit what our customers want.”

Of all the changes she has helped implement in her role, she’s most proud of their new training program.

“We are getting more engagement and success because of it,” Case says. “You can have a training program, but it may not be getting you the same results that an excellent training program can.”

True Buy-In
Training isn’t a one and done experience. She says she still learns something new every day. In fact, that’s why her favorite part of her job is the role of technician. She works alongside her team doing the tasks they do. Not only does it get her buy-in, but the shared experiences open the door for meaningful and important conversations, especially if they are questioning a process.

“Courtney is always willing to help with whatever you need and consistently leads from the front,” Galindo says. “She is a very responsible person who clearly loves her job and conveys the same passion to the team. She shows respect to the entire team by guiding, teaching and supporting us. I believe the respect is mutual.”

That servant leadership sets Case apart, says Eric Rider, sow production manager in the northern tier of Pennsylvania for CVFF. He’s known Case since they attended college together at Delaware Valley.

“She works side by side with her team as a farm manager, developing and pushing them to be the best,” Rider says. “She doesn’t ask her team to do anything that she wouldn’t do. She demands a lot from them, which is why I think she gets that respect. Her expectations are high, which has helped develop more leaders under her guidance.”

But Case would never sugarcoat managing people. She says it’s the hardest part of her job, and that surprised her.

“As a lead in the nursery, I had two team members. I thought that for sure, the 20,000 pigs I oversaw were going to be harder than two team members,” she says. “Surprise – they were not. It’s increasingly more challenging as you move up from two to 10 to 20 team members. It’s also what brings me back every day — the challenge of keeping my team engaged and getting the best out of my team members.”

Sow Farm Excellence
Case excels at getting the best out of her team and continues to raise the bar in sow farm performance, Rider says. CVFF has a benchmark system that compares all of the sow farms in all of their regions, including Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Indiana.

“Success, to me, looks like being at the top of that list consistently,” she says. “That means I’ve got my team and production practices firing on all cylinders. It means meeting customer expectations as far as wean pig quality and hitting those targets with an engaged team.”

Every week her team waits to see where they are on the list. And she loves it.

“During our weekly meeting, we’ll review the standings,” Case says. “They can’t wait to see the customer response form from the nursery when we ship our wean pigs. They want to know who they beat that week and if someone beat them, how did they do it? That fuels their fire to perform that much better.”

A Winning Combination
To be a successful sow farm manager, it takes grit, determination and dedication, Case says. But even more importantly, it requires some sacrifice.

“What I get from this career is worth the sacrifices that I’ve made,” she adds. “When it comes to my leadership skills, I’m a much different person then I was 10 years ago. I connect with people. I’ve learned all of these life skills through my career that have also allowed me to provide really well for my family in a rural area.”

Being on call 24/7, 365 days a year isn’t easy. She says it’s hard to unplug because somebody might need you or the pigs might need you in the middle of the night.

“For me, that is the hardest part of my job,” Case admits. “I want so badly to make sure everything’s done right. I would be here all day and all night, but I’ve had to learn that balance over the years. You can’t do that or you will burn yourself out.”

Her focus on developing her team has built trust. She’s learned to delegate more and this has helped relieve the tension of carrying it all on her shoulders. It’s also helped her team develop into stronger leaders, too.

Rider says it’s easy to see why Case has excelled in her career. She is a true barn hero, exemplifying ethics, integrity and stewardship both inside and outside of work.

“She is relentless about improvement, bringing ideas to the table, pushing her leadership team and quickly implementing changes,” Rider says. “She creates a safe environment for her team – her team finished the fiscal year with zero accidents. She doesn’t just develop her own team, but she drives success in the region by pushing our other sow farm managers to bring their best every day.”

It’s a win-win. Case says she feels privileged to do something she is extremely passionate about, putting her college degree to use while providing for her family.

“I get to do what I love every single day,” she says. “What could be better than that?”

Your Next Read: The Power of Why: Sow Barn Manager Jaime Sanchez Rises Above

Courtney Case says she’s grateful for her supportive family consisting of husband, Kyle Rouse, and daughters Whitney, 9, and Lainey, 6. She says Kyle is a huge part of her success and support.

One of the most important things Courtney Case looks for in a caregiver are observation skills. Being in tune with the pigs is critical. She says this is not easy to learn – you’ve got that ability to see what’s wrong or you don’t. She believes it is something that is understood innately. Empathy, patience and teamwork closely follow, she adds.

Roberto Galindo, farrowing team lead at Smiler Porker Sow Farm, says Courtney is the type of leader who lifts her team, provides guidance and shares knowledge freely. She always gives her best and constantly seeks to improve in everything she does.

Courtney is a champion for promoting agriculture, her teammates say. She is devoted to her family beef and chicken farm, Blair Creek Farm LLC, and raising her kids to be next-generation farmers.

Lance Dunbar: A Hero by Day and Night

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 22:14:17 GMT

Firefighters are trained to rescue people from dangerous situations, extinguish fires and provide care. They learn how to deliver hard news and handle dire situations. For Lance Dunbar of Berwick, Ill., there are many similarities between his career as director of production for Professional Swine Management and his role as a firefighter.

“It’s all about doing the right thing,” he says. “If you do the right thing every day, you’ll be successful.”

It’s that courage — doing the right thing even when it’s hard — that makes Dunbar a barn hero in the eyes of the people he works with and interacts with every day on the farm.

Working His Way Up
Although there is something to be said about education, a lot can be said about experience, especially on the farm. Dunbar oversees 36 sites and five boar studs in his role today. But some of the most valuable lessons he’s learned in life started years ago growing up on a diversified livestock farm in Illinois with pigs raised outside.

“I’ve always had a passion for the pork industry and wanted to be a part of it,” Dunbar says. “I love pigs and can’t imagine doing anything else.”

That passion is evident by the roles he’s taken on over the years. In high school, he was a farrowing manager on a small 800-sow farrow-to-finish farm. A few years later, he became the assistant manager on an 800-farrow-to-finish operation before becoming the manager in 1993. He remained with that farm until early 2002 when it closed after the owners sold their farm ground. He applied with Carthage in 2002 and became a farm manager of one of their multiplication farms.

Within a few years of making the move to Carthage, his farm was named Farm of the Year three times, and he was named Manager of the Year before moving into new roles in the company.

“I have worked my way up in this industry,” Dunbar says. “I’ve power washed, tagged piglets at birth and sleeved sows as a farm manager on a small farm.”

(Matt Mormann)

He appreciates his experiences working on smaller farms because he was able to do a little bit of everything, he says. Now, as a director of production, he’s still involved in many of those processes, especially training.

Spending time with his teams on the farm is critical for everyone to be able to do their best work.

“I go into the farms often to look at the processes being done,” he says. “I like to walk through with the farm leaders and ask questions. Often those answers allow me to strategize how I can help them get better. I often say, ‘I can tell you this because I’ve messed it up.’ Maybe I don’t say it in those exact words, but I’ve sure made mistakes.”

Mandy Dutton, senior production manager for Professional Swine Management, says that’s one of Dunbar’s leadership qualities she admires most.

“He’s very up front,” she says. “His ability to go into a farm and work side by side with others is incredible. He’s not above anyone on the farm and people respect that about him.”

Don’t Leave it to Chance
His honesty and transparency are greatly valued, Dutton explains. He’s honest about what he sees in the barn and what he needs to see. His team values his positive and constructive criticism.

“He’s very invested and passionate. When you hear him talk and see him at a farm manager meeting, you might think he’s a little wound up, but he’s not. He’s just very passionate and loves what he does,” Dutton says. “He’s a senior leader who rolls up his sleeves, gets in and gets dirty. He can outwork any of us at the end of the day.”

Dunbar says he wants his team to fully understand the processes being laid out. Sometimes that means showing them how or helping them figure out a better way.

“Years ago, every person who worked on a pig farm was a farm kid. Today, that’s not the case,” Dunbar explains. “There’s a broader range of training involved to get new employees up to speed. It requires more patience and certifications.”

(Matt Mormann)

One of the things Dunbar has helped implement is a training and onboarding program in the Carthage system. Every employee is taught the same thing regardless of their prior experience. From animal welfare for piglets to using a fire extinguisher and from animal handling to understanding the flight zones of pigs, employees go through a detailed onboarding process before they are allowed to go on a farm.

“It’s really helped us get employees onboarded and continue to develop them. I think it takes more time to get employees up to speed to do the right thing on a daily basis now than what it did 20 years ago,” Dunbar says.

That’s why he doesn’t leave it to chance that employees are equipped with basic skills. When it comes time to find caregivers, the bar is set high.

“A good caregiver is compassionate and willing to go the extra mile to say, ‘These animals didn’t look right to me,’” he says. “They are good communicators and have follow-up skills to go back and treat animals.”

Environment, water and feed are essential to providing good animal care, but the efforts don’t stop there.

“We do everything we can to make the animals comfortable and to raise animals that are very easy to work around,” Dunbar says. “When you walk down a farrowing barn hallway, and sows walk past you heading into a room, we want our sows to never turn around or be scared to walk by people. The animals should have no flight zone around our folks. We want the sows to know people will never harm them.”

He believes this is part of the story the pork industry needs to tell better.

“There is a misconception by some people that we put our animals in cages and don’t care about them,” Dunbar says. “Our company has zero tolerance for neglect or willful abuse to animals. We will terminate people who are mean to animals. We do as much as we can to help employees understand it’s all about creating the best environment for pigs and treating them in a humane manner all the time.”

What Does Success Look Like?
In Dunbar’s mind, success on the farm isn’t all that complicated.

“Success looks like happy and healthy employees; it’s low turnover and low incidence of accidents,” he says. “Ultimately, it’s getting farms to be productive, raising healthy piglets, and putting out a product that the customers and owners are happy with.”

He believes this starts by creating a positive culture where employees feel informed, empowered and recognized.

(Matt Mormann)

“We make sure to acknowledge when people are doing awesome things,” Dunbar says. “When farms are extremely productive and well managed, how can we learn from that?”

They prioritize developing the next managers from within the company. For example, last year, they had 10 internal promotions from heads of departments to managers.

“We keep pushing the system to grow within,” he says. “They already know the SOPs and the people, and then when they become farm managers, everyone sees that and thinks, ‘Wow, this guy was an HOD and now he’s a manager of a $20-million operation.’ It’s inspiring.”

Personally, watching people achieve success is the most rewarding part of Dunbar’s job. Over the years, he’s watched several employees who are now farm managers start out as technicians and move up the chain into leadership roles.

“It’s super fun to watch those folks grow into the next generation of leaders,” Dunbar says. “When I retire, I know there are talented folks in the system who will take my place.”

Manage Chaos
When you have over 170,000 sows and five boar studs and many truck washes to oversee, there are a lot of moving parts. Staying on top of all the moving parts can be a challenge.

“You need to have great communication about your team’s needs and challenges. It doesn’t take very long to get behind or out of the loop,” he says. “You have to be able to manage chaos. Unfortunately, sometimes it feels like you’re just putting fires out. It never shuts off. The wheels are always turning even when you think you’re off. It’s a full-time-and-a-half job.”

But it’s worth it, Dunbar says.

“You get to meet a lot of great people,” he says. “You can learn something new every day in this career but be prepared to work really hard at it.”

(Matt Mormann)

He couldn’t do what he does without the support of his wife, Michelle, and his kids: Landon, Livia and Wyatt. His family knows that the job never stops and some days he will have to deal with a trailer rollover until the wee hours of the night or unexpectedly run to a barn in Missouri that’s having a health issue.

“When we got married, I was just a farm manager, so my wife has watched my career continue to develop and blossom over the years,” he says.

Dunbar also serves as the assistant chief of first responders and station fire chief in Berwick. He recently started a junior firefighters program, introducing young people into the fire service. His son, Wyatt, was one of the first to go through the program.

A Real-Life Hero
Being a firefighter is a lot like Dunbar’s day job for Professional Swine Management. It requires great sacrifice and commitment to do it right.

Dutton believes her mentor and boss, Dunbar, defines a barn hero.

“He goes into a barn and knows what he is going in for,” she says. “He’s looked at the records, knows where we need to get better and focuses on that. He involves the whole team. He is part of the process to fix anything that needs fixed and follows up on that. That makes him a barn hero to me.”

When it comes down to it, what makes Dunbar unique is ownership.

“For me, the job doesn’t end at 3 p.m.,” he says. “For example, if you have an alarm call, you go verify and make sure the pigs in your building are good, regardless of the time of day or night. I believe it’s important to treat people and the pigs like they are yours. I always manage the business like it’s my money going into it. A lot of things feed into ownership — it’s also owning how you want to be managed and treated yourself.”

One of the most telling characteristics of Dunbar’s leadership is that he answers his phone when his team calls. Dutton says that means a lot in this business to get a call back every time from your boss.

“I am extremely humbled to be named a barn hero,” Dunbar says. “I always try to do the right thing in the industry, work hard and develop folks along the way.”

Your Next Read: The Power of Why: Sow Barn Manager Jaime Sanchez Rises Above

The Power of Why: Sow Barn Manager Jaime Sanchez Rises Above

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 18:39:45 GMT

After Jaime Sanchez finished his sophomore year of high school, he quit school and found a job at a local factory. Two years later, his cousin heard about a job opportunity on a farm near Jones, Mich. He asked Sanchez to go with him to get an application and translate. Long story short, Sanchez filled out an application, too, and has been with Rolling Meadows Farms ever since.

Born in San Miguel Michoacan, Mexico, Sanchez moved to the U.S. at a young age. He had no experience working with animals but proved to be a fast learner. His curiosity and genuine interest in understanding why quickly set him apart.

“It was so different than my previous job,” he explains. “In the beginning, all I did was power wash — for months on end it seemed, but I liked working on the farm and got pretty good at it.”

Over the years, Sanchez has faithfully helped the farm achieve its goals and grow. His experience and desire to never stop learning helped him secure his current role as sow barn manager. For owner Andy White, the sixth generation to run the family farm, there’s no question Sanchez is a barn hero in his eyes.

“A barn hero is someone who cares deeply about their job and what it takes to do what we do on farms across this country,” White says. “It’s someone who takes the time to focus on the people and the animals, pays attention to details and makes sure they’re always doing the best job they can do. Jaime embodies all those things. He’s dependable, knowledgeable, respected and gets along well with others. He worked his way up from low man on the totem pole when he was 18 years old to managing our sow unit.”

“There are many reasons why Jaime Sanchez is a barn hero. He is passionate about his job, works well with others, and cares about the whole scope of the farm and what it takes to get pork to your plate,” says Andy White, owner of Rolling Meadows Farms.

To say Sanchez is a critical part of how the farm operates is an understatement, White explains. As his boss, White wants to make sure Sanchez knows he’s appreciated and respected, not just by his peers, but by him, too.

More Than a Job
Sanchez has been in a unique position, helping the farm transition from housing pigs outside to housing animals inside. One of his strengths is he understands the entire system, White says. He oversees the sow barn, but he understands how all of the segments work together to make the production system flow.

“When we bring people through the barn, they always comment on how sharp Jaime is,” White says. “He understands what he is doing in the sow barn affects everything that follows.”

Before he became the manager, Sanchez says he was always eager to learn.

“I would stick around no matter what time it was, and I would ask questions,” he says. “I learned a lot from my old managers. They never hesitated to show me how to do things, even if it wasn’t part of my job description at times.”

As a leader now, he’s the first to encourage his team to ask questions, whether it’s about pigs or understanding how something works on the farm.

“My role is to make sure everything’s working properly, that all the guys are on task, that we’re pushing out numbers and staying consistent with our production,” Sanchez explains. “We try and wean the best pigs and as many pigs as possible, the right way.”

Although the core components of what he does have remained the same, he admits the way the job is done has changed a lot over the past 20 years due to technology.

“Before, everything was manual. We used pencils and sow cards, fed with scoops, etc.,” Sanchez says. “Now, it’s a lot different and takes some of the weight off your shoulders. We can be more focused on individual pig care because we aren’t having to do as much manual labor to get the pigs fed.”

The responsibilities haven’t lessened, but the approach to the job is different now. He believes that’s one of the misconceptions many people have about careers on a pig farm.

“At a sow unit, so many pieces have to line up to help us get where we’re going, but everybody just thinks all we do is feed pigs and give them medicine,” Sanchez says. “That’s not even close. There’s a lot of care we have to do from making sure their feed is good and they’re getting plenty of water to making sure their crates work and ventilation is on target.”

For Sanchez, animal welfare drives his decisions every day. The care individual animals receive day in and day out helps the farm achieve success.

“You can’t just look at this as a farm; it’s so much more,” Sanchez says. “Being a caretaker requires compassion for animals. It’s not a ‘work for eight hours and leave’ kind of a job. It means more than just a paycheck. We have 1,500 animals in that barn, and every animal feels differently. You must pay attention to who doesn’t feel good, and then, what are you going to do about that?”

Know Your Team’s Strengths
Raising healthy animals defines success for Sanchez. He also hopes he’s creating a culture and environment that is appealing to his team and keeps them coming back to work each day.

“What makes the job easy also makes the job hard — the people,” he says.

Over the years, he’s learned a few things to help him better manage people. For example, he spends time trying to determine what each employee excels at and which areas of their job need improvement.

“I have one person who loves moving animals. I line him up to complete these jobs for us when I can because it makes him happy,” Sanchez says. “It’s hard to make everybody happy at the same time, but I try to have them do the tasks they enjoy when possible. If you can meet in the middle, everybody tends to stay on a better pace.”

His willingness to take the time to find out areas of strength and weakness makes him a better team leader, White says. He wants people to see there is always more they can do and help them keep moving forward in the industry.

“Jaime’s personality and demeanor make it easy for him to work with others,” White says. “He has a deep knowledge of his job and role on the farm, which makes it easier to train people and work with others when they need help with different tasks or roles.”

Sanchez looks for employees who are compassionate toward animals and treat the animals as if they were their own.

(Mike Byers)

His bilingual capabilities are also an asset on the farm. White says he’s had several workers come to the farm through visa programs who have had a seamless transition thanks to Sanchez’s support and guidance.

“He’s provided a sense of comfort because they can communicate and talk very easily with Jaime,” White says. “Jaime went with me to pick them up. You could tell they were unsure about coming to a new country and leaving their family behind. When Jaime was there to visit with them, it put them at ease right away.”

The Road to Success
Life on the farm isn’t always sunshine and roses, White points out. Sanchez’s willingness to learn, adapt and change has been key to his longevity at Rolling Meadows Farms.

“We’ve worked through difficult times and challenges, but he’s always been willing to learn and make improvements. As he’s taken on new roles and began managing people, he’s still prioritized changing when needed and being willing to learn new ways to do things. He wants to get better so he can help others get better, too.”

With 15 full-time employees depending on them, Sanchez and White take their roles seriously.

“It’s not lost on me that 15 families depend on us for their livelihood,” White adds.

Maybe that’s why seeing Sanchez soar in his role at the farm has been so meaningful to him. White says watching somebody grow and develop in their own life is humbling.

“Jaime lived in a house on the farm for a long time,” White says. “He made sacrifices and saved, bought his own house and moved off the farm. It was a bittersweet thing. After all, he had worked hard toward providing that for his family. At the same time, he was not going to be right down the road anymore.”

Watching Sanchez excel in his career reminds White of the importance of stopping to reflect from time to time.

“We rarely look back at where we started and where we are now,” he says. “When I think about Jaime — wow, he’s grown and matured so much. He has an amazing family. Watching his kids flourish has been so rewarding, too.”

Of all the lessons he’s learned at Rolling Meadows Farms, Sanchez says one of the most valuable has been to learn as much as possible.

“Be humble and willing to learn. Take everything in,” he advises. “There’s always room for improvement, for learning along the way. We never have it all figured out in life.”

Your Next Read: Barn Hero Alma Valdez: ‘Success is Never Just Your Success’

How Barn Hero Ariel Gonzalez Earned Street Cred in the Barn

Fri, 09 Aug 2024 15:24:56 GMT

Authority. Respect. Admiration. Street cred. Call it what you want, but when it comes to leadership in the pork industry, there is nothing like having been there and done that. It’s one of the great stories about working in animal agriculture.

“It doesn’t matter where you come from, your socioeconomic background or your education level,” says Jason Hall, senior director of grow finish at Seaboard Foods. “You can overcome all of those things in the pork industry by showing up, working hard and being a good steward of animals and the environment.”

That’s Ariel Gonzalez.

Watch: AgDay Barn Hero Ariel Gonzalez

Over two decades ago, Gonzalez set out to find a summer job before heading off to college to become a history teacher. It didn’t take long for him to land a job with Seaboard in an entry-level position caring for pigs.

“My plan was to be there for the summer, but the summer flew by. I enjoyed it, and the paychecks were rolling in,” Gonzalez says. “So, I stayed.”

Now, 21 years later, Gonzalez serves as production manager for Seaboard Foods’ Region 6 that covers eight multisites, 412 barns and about 412,000 pigs a year. He says he can’t imagine another path that would bring him the joy and satisfaction he feels every day.

“Ariel goes out every day and provides good care to our animals, good leadership to our employees, takes care of the environment — all in an effort to provide high-quality protein to a lot of people that would otherwise do without,” says Hall, his supervisor. “To me, that’s pretty heroic stuff.”

An Evolving Role
Although Gonzalez grew up around grain farming in Elkhart, Kan., he had no experience working with pigs. He admits it was kind of scary at first to be around that many animals at one time, but it didn’t take long before he felt at home in the barns.

Over the years, his knowledge base grew as he continued to gain experience after experience that helped him move up the ranks at Seaboard. In his current role as a production manager, he assesses the barns and helps set up game plans and processes to assist farm managers in their roles.

From reviewing mortality reports to training new managers, Gonzalez says each day is filled with challenges and opportunities to lead by example. One of the aspects he enjoys most is walking the barn with his team members because it allows him to share his experience with others in a tangible way.

Ariel Gonzalez’s work ethic, positive attitude and bilingual communication skills have helped him gain respect and admiration in the barn.

“When I’m walking a barn with a new manager, I often find them focused on looking at the pigs, which is important, but I’m also looking for feed quality, water flow, ventilation and barn maintenance issues,” he points out. “Because of my experience, my view of the barn is much wider than it was back when I was in their shoes. Understanding this, walking the barn is not just about one thing.”

That’s one of the biggest changes he has noticed as he has advanced into new roles at Seaboard. As a level-hand employee, there was more physical work with the pigs: treating, receiving, pulling out pigs that weren’t competing in the general population, and everyday tasks that kept him busy. As the job levels evolved, his role became more strategic, requiring him to think faster and better.

It’s All About the Pig
Still, the guiding principle of what he does today hasn’t changed from his first day on the job: It’s all about the pig. He hopes to daily instill those values and practices into every employee he encounters. He takes the role of mentorship seriously.

“The best caregivers believe what they do is important every day,” Gonzalez says. “When they walk in, they are looking at pigs and making sure they have feed and water. Most of our employees are whistling or singing or talking to the pigs themselves to get them up and moving so they can see how the pigs are doing.”

The best employees are doing what is necessary but doing so with urgency and tactfulness, Gonzalez adds. Helping employees understand urgency, especially when it comes to pig health and animal welfare, isn’t always easy.

“My biggest task is to get all the managers on the same page,” he says. “We start with high-priority items and work our way back. First comes first. That can be tough to get managers

established in their role to look at things in priority order. Not everyone learns the same way. Some people struggle a bit to understand it, so it requires more patience and training.”

His goal is to instill pride in his employees, pride that their job matters and pride in the product they produce.

“I have 100% confidence in the meat we produce because we produce it at a high quality. The employees we train take on that confidence,” Gonzalez says. “I hope they can go look at pork in the grocery store and be proud to say they helped put that there.”

The Bilingual Benefit
It’s his ability to communicate while passing on a passion for pork production that makes Gonzalez so valuable at Seaboard.

“With his ability to communicate in English and Spanish, he is able to explain why we do things much more in depth than I was ever able to do,” Hall says. “The employees understand why we do the things we are doing because he can communicate so well with them. Coming from an entry-level position and working his way through the system, he has a tremendous amount of street cred with our employees. They are more honest with him about what they do and don’t understand, what they need from a resource standpoint, and what they want to know more about.”

It’s that quality feedback he receives that allows him to better lead his teams and communicate needs with upper management.

“It’s a big advantage to be bilingual,” Gonzalez says. “When you think about where the industry was 21 years ago when I started, there were very few bilingual employees. People were either strictly Spanish-speaking or strictly English-speaking. I had the ability to come in and communicate on both sides with management and entry-level employees.”

There’s nothing like having been there and done that, Hall adds. Employees like Gonzalez as a person, but more importantly, they respect him.

“People have seen Ariel demonstrate all these things we are talking about from a leadership standpoint each and every day,” Hall says. “We have a lot of different farms, but they aren’t so far apart that people don’t know each other. Ariel is familiar to them, and they respect the blood, sweat and tears it has taken him to get to the position he is now.”

In short, he’s inspiring. Gonzalez is a daily reminder that with hard work and perseverance, you can achieve big goals in life.

“I think it’s important as a supervisor that you never find yourself in a position to ask people to do things you haven’t done. Every time Ariel asks an employee to come in early or stay late, or if the weather is bad, or if we are a little shorthanded, whatever the constraint might be, they know he’s been there,” Hall says.

A Hero in and Out of the Barn
A boots-on-the-ground operator, Gonzalez spends a lot of time with his team in the barn.

“It’s hard to be a barn hero if you aren’t in the barn,” Hall says. “Ariel is in the barn a lot and follows up with every employee he comes across. He keeps them engaged and answers questions. Ariel’s a down-to-earth leadership guy, a front-line leader. I think people recognize this and rally around it.”

Consistency is key when it comes to training. Gonzalez says having regular face time with employees in the barn and holding people accountable is key to fostering a positive barn culture.

“You are going to be rewarded for things you do right, and there are consequences for the things that are done wrong,” Gonzalez says. “As long as everybody understands that and respects it, it creates a very positive work environment for all of us.”

As he looks to the future, Gonzalez says success looks like passing the experience he’s acquired over the past 21 years on to others. He’s looking for somebody who shares his pride and commitment to excellence to take over his job someday.

“I want to train my managers to succeed and move to bigger roles,” he says. “Five years down the road, I’d honestly like to say, ‘Hey, do you know who so-and-so worked for that’s the production manager now? He worked for me.’”

He is excited about the future because he believes the younger generation likes being around animals and doing everything possible for them to grow well. This is the type of person he wants in the barn.

“I think the younger generation would enjoy coming out here and working with pigs. If they could just try it, I think they’d find how enjoyable this work environment is,” Gonzalez says. “People ask me all the time if I like what I do. I quickly let them know I wouldn’t be doing this 21 years later if I didn’t enjoy it. I love the diversity of what I do, of who I work with and of the way people think around here. We’re all trying to achieve the same goal, and it’s rewarding to be a part of this environment.”

Hall says there’s no question Gonzalez is a barn hero — not only at Seaboard Foods but in the global pork industry as well.

“He’s a card-carrying good guy. That doesn’t take long to figure out,” Hall says. “He volunteers quickly and always smiles. Everybody in our small town knows him, and it’s not because he’s a ‘hey-look-at-me’ person. He doesn’t do good things for the accolades, he does it because he’s a good guy.”

What Makes a Barn Hero?

Tue, 18 Jun 2024 15:48:52 GMT

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:

Barn Hero Summer Doty: Prioritizing Pig Care

Barn Hero Alma Valdez: ‘Success is Never Just Your Success’

Barn Hero Alma Valdez: 'Success is Never Just Your Success'

Wed, 15 May 2024 18:14:01 GMT

The breathtaking views of Guanajuato, Mexico, weren’t easy to leave behind, but Ma Merced Yebra knew her children deserved better than what she could provide them there. Although her husband went to the U.S. often to find work, he never saved enough to help his family back in Mexico. One day she decided to take a chance on a new life in the U.S., leaving behind her roots and venturing into the unknown with her four young children.

“We didn’t have a lot growing up,” says Alma Valdez, her youngest daughter. “We were very poor. We lived in a house made of cardboard and metal sheets. We struggled a lot. My mother’s decision to leave her home in Guanajuato to come to the U.S. changed my life completely.”

This journey led them to DeKalb, Ill. At the age of 8, Valdez turned all her focus to learning English — fast. Unfortunately, very few teachers knew Spanish at the time, so it made it difficult for her to learn.

“I guess that’s where I started learning to not give up, to always try to see the best in people and to learn from everyone,” she adds.

With time, she picked up English and found herself translating for her family. Her mom took a job at a pig farm. When Valdez turned 18, she started working at the farm with her mother as a part-time power washer a few days each week. Not long after that, she began translating educational materials from English into Spanish to help other employees. Valdez says that’s how she learned how to castrate, how to care for sows, how to heat check and more.

She kept saying yes to new opportunities. She worked her way up the ranks and found herself in a manager role, taking care of the barn and the crew. Valdez moved to Minnesota to gain even more experience. A couple years later, a local veterinarian approached her to apply for a job back in DeKalb at Johnson Farms.

Her inspiring journey moving up from power washing farrowing rooms to managing a sow farm makes Valdez a barn hero in the eyes of everyone who works with her, says Cole Johnson, co-owner of Johnson Farms.

“She has a unique ability to earn credibility with people,” he adds. “When it comes to leading a crew in the barn, she’s been where they are. She will never ask anyone to do something she has not already done or is willing to jump in and try alongside them.”

The Right People in the Right Spots

When Valdez went to work for Johnson Farms a few years ago, she admits it was a little overwhelming at first.

“There was a lot of work to be done,” Valdez explains. “But that’s also what made it exciting.”

She says learning how to use new technologies at the farm such as e-tagging and electronic sow feeding made her job even more interesting. She was also eager to help get the farm more organized and build a more cohesive team.

“I think the frustrating part was not being able to be in all the places that I wanted to be in the short amount of time that I had throughout the day. As soon as I’d fix something in one spot, another area needed my attention,” Valdez adds.

The never-ending to-do list is one of the many reasons Valdez initially worked for three weeks straight before taking a day off.

“People see she doesn’t take many days off, even though I urge her to do so,” Johnson says. “You can’t come in and just be a dictator, especially when you’re asking people to make a lot of changes. Alma’s understanding that you need to have credibility with people before you can lead them is unique.”

Valdez says this was an intentional decision because she believes leadership requires an understanding of the people you are leading.

“It starts by getting to know the crew, making sure you have the right person in the right spot,” she says. “It’s like they say, ‘put your aces in your places.’ That’s exactly what I do.

When you come into a new barn, you have to find out what everybody has to bring to the table and put them where they fit. Then, you can step back and let them succeed.”

Spending time working alongside her team allows her to know what team members need to improve upon, while also helping her learn what she can improve upon by watching them, too.

“They need to know that I’m not just there to boss them around; I’m there to work with them and guide them where needed,” Valdez says. “Earning their trust has been the biggest thing, especially in this industry. Women are not looked upon with high hopes to get stuff done as a man would in this role.”

Caring for pigs should never be just about earning a paycheck, she says. Her goal is to build a team that truly cares about what they do in the barn each day, and that starts with her.

“I am nothing without the crew. Everybody has something to offer the farm,” she says. “And when it’s not the right person, they will step away on their own because they will know that they’re not fitting in. When you have a great team, like the one I have right now, it’s never about any one person. It’s about all of us working together.”

The Proof is in the Sow Pen

After a month of her leadership, Johnson noticed a change in the sows.

“Our veterinarian and I were walking the barns and he pointed out how different the sows were behaving,” Johnson says. “They were so much calmer around people — almost indifferent to us as we walked around. That was not always the case before Alma joined us. I attribute that to them getting more individual attention and being around people more.”

Patience and a love for animals is a critical part of being a caregiver, Valdez says.

“You can’t just walk in here and not care for animals,” she says. “When you spend time with them every day, you get close to them. You see them differently. You realize they depend on you to survive. Caregivers need to be willing to go above and beyond to look after the animal, make sure they see each animal individually, and have the desire to ask for help when needed.”

It’s not just the sows who revere Valdez as a barn hero, it’s the people, too.

“When Alma steps into a room, something changes,” Johnson says. “She brings positive energy wherever she goes. I rarely used to hear laughter in the break room. Now, there’s always laughter when I walk in there. She understands the importance of a positive environment and how that seeps down into the care animals get.”

Valdez says starting at the bottom of the ladder power washing made her even hungrier to learn.

“I learned from the good and bad in people around me. I learned what I did and did not want to do. I’ve molded my way up to where I am today, and I feel very proud of that,” she adds.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that she’s a little competitive, too. She loves finding ways to get tasks done more efficiently and is never afraid to show off her skills in hopes others respond and rise to a higher level.

“No one wants to let the team down,” Johnson says. “Everyone wants to carry their weight. That stems from Alma’s example. She won’t slack off. She never hides behind a desk and does the unpleasant jobs along with her team.”

Understanding that a positive culture starts with her, Valdez chooses to lead by example. She knows that how she acts, how she treats animals, how she treats coworkers, how she responds to challenges, all rub off on her team.

Eusebio Balderrama is one of the team members at Johnson Farms. He appreciates how Valdez always considers everyone’s input when it comes to making decisions on the farm.

“She is not set on doing the same thing because that’s what’s always been done,” Balderrama says. “She always wants to improve the farm. I like to work with her because she is open-minded. Even if we don’t see eye to eye, we always find a way to work together to achieve a better result for the farm.”

Translating Success

Balderrama is one of six employees on Valdez’ team. Most of the employees only speak limited English, so Valdez’ bilingual skills are an asset to the team.

“Playing a translator helps build everyone’s confidence in your role as a leader,” Valdez points out. “Communication is critically important. I always want to make sure that the rest of the team members understand what the other ones are going through. There have been many times I have to sit and translate. We can’t let language be a barrier to doing our job right.”

She really appreciates how her team finds ways to communicate, even when language gets in the way. It’s never an excuse to not get stuff done, she says.

Patience is an important trait to have when leading a team, Valdez says. Being a caretaker is full of challenges that are often out of your control.

“Bad things happen, and it doesn’t help to blame anyone,” she says. “For example, my team watches how I respond to disease breaks. If you act like everything is over and you are overly emotional, they feed off that. I have learned to stay centered, find out what we can do different next time and keep communicating.”

But that’s easier said than done some days, she admits. That’s why she starts by taking care of herself and leaving her problems at home when she comes to work each day.

“Everybody has their issues,” Valdez says. “We try not to bring that stuff to work so we can focus better on our daily tasks. Getting our work done definitely helps us create momentum for the day and find something to be positive about.”

She’s also learned to create space during breaks and at lunch for non-work conversations.

“We all need time to unwind,” she says. “When we come to lunch, I make sure we have a positive experience so we can relieve a little stress. We don’t focus on work — we take a break from it. Just having a moment for each other helps the crew and myself.”

Her leadership style works, Johnson says. She empowers others to do their best and take responsibility.

“Alma knows when to be hands-on and when to take a step back and let the team take ownership of their specific area,” he says. “People appreciate that and feel trusted. It motivates them to take ownership of what they are doing.”

Passing It On

How does it feel to be called a barn hero? Valdez insists she’s just someone who loves what she does every day.

“It’s very rewarding to know that someone outside your barn sees the work you are putting in,” she says. “It’s nice to know that someone else cares about what you’re doing.”

Of all the praise she’s received, one person’s praise has meant the most to her, she admits.

“My son is 15. He didn’t like the idea of me working at a farm because ‘it’s smelly.’ But he started coming to help me on the weekends and noticed the care that I was giving and why I did things the way I did,” she explains.

After training him to do some tasks, her son started to like the job a little, and now he loves it.

“He told me he wants to be a manager like me,” she says. “He says, ‘I want to run a place. I want to be able to have that and know everything about the farm like you do.’ For me to be able to give that hope to my own son, to have that drive and determination to get somewhere, that’s all I could ever ask for,” Valdez says.

That’s her hope, not just for her son, but for everyone she trains and works alongside. She simply wants them to feel proud of what they do, she says.

“One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that your success is never just your success,” Valdez says. “It’s a team effort — I’m just trying to make sure we go in the same direction.”

Read More from the Barn Heroes Series:

Barn Hero Summer Doty: Prioritizing Pig Care

The Front Line Matters

The Front Line Matters

Wed, 15 May 2024 17:54:16 GMT

We are fighting many battles now in the U.S. pork industry. From disease pathogens to animal rights extremists to misconceptions of what it’s like to work on a pig farm, I’m reminded of how much the people on the front line matter.

The front line of the pork industry stretches deep and wide. It requires dedicated and motivated individuals to faithfully protect and defend our industry’s future by the work they do day in and day out. It’s not easy work. Being on the front lines requires a level of mental stamina that can take a toll on individuals.

I think that’s why Alma Valdez’s leadership at Johnson Farms has inspired me so much and earned her the title of barn hero in the June Farm Journal’s PORK issue. Valdez leads with patience and respect for both pigs and people, bringing a positive energy to the barn that results in more empowered employees and better pig care.

“Everybody has their issues. We try not to bring that stuff to work so we can focus better on our daily tasks,” Valdez says. “Getting our work done definitely helps us create momentum for the day and find something to be positive about.” Read and watch how she leads her team to success here.

Be Honest About the Hard Stuff

Finding something to be positive about is key because some days are harder than others. For example, I recently participated in an on-farm foreign animal disease (FAD) exercise that allowed me to see firsthand some of the work being done to prepare the U.S. pork industry for the worst-case scenario of an FAD outbreak. Learn how the National Pork Board is collaborating with researchers, industry leaders, veterinarians and producers to explore depopulation options .

I’ll admit I wasn’t sure what to expect at this exercise. My general observation was that a very hard situation was handled by knowledgeable, experienced people who did their job with great respect and admiration for the pigs. If anything, the methods modeled were peaceful, humane and fast.

But I know it’s one thing to be an outsider looking in, and it’s another to be someone who works day in a day out in the barn with the animals. Elizabeth Strand, founding director of the Center for Veterinary Social Work at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, says depopulation often makes people feel like they are in a war zone. She was on-site to help attendees process their feelings during the exercise. Read about a tool she helped develop for caregivers here.

Invest in Your Front Line

The front line is the face of our industry. That’s why we need to find ways to support them and invest in opportunities to boost their resiliency. How are you investing in your front line and saying thank you to those who diligently work to protect the U.S. pork industry every single day?

Barn Hero Summer Doty: Prioritizing Pig Care

Thu, 09 May 2024 10:37:00 GMT

Summer Doty hasn’t saved anyone from a burning building or led an army into battle. She hasn’t jumped into the path of an oncoming train or dismantled a bomb. Still, the work she does day in and day out at Islercrest Farms is proof that not all heroes wear capes.

Experts offer different definitions of heroism, but most agree it involves putting others first without the expectation of reward. That’s why Nathan Isler, co-owner of Islercrest Farms in Prospect, Ohio, believes Doty defines what it means to be a barn hero.

“Our No. 1 goal on our farm is always to take the best care possible of our animals. A person who excels at doing this, who can identify and put an animal’s needs above all else, is a barn hero,” Isler says.

It wasn’t a hard decision to hire Doty after she completed her animal science degree at Wilmington College in 2021. After searching the job board at school, she applied for a farrowing manager position at Islercrest.

Growing up on a family farm near Mingo, Ohio, Doty has been around animals her entire life. She began raising her own showpigs in seventh grade. Although, they never had more than six sows on the farm at a time, she says that number suited her family just fine. It allowed them to raise their own pigs to show while gaining valuable experience managing a small herd.

“When you come across a kid with a farm background, you get excited,” Isler says. “We are biased that farm kids come in with a strong work ethic.”

^{Summer Doty’s passion for pigs is evident in how she approaches every task on the farm, says farm co-owner Nathan Isler.}

He says although Doty might not seem to be different than many people who got their start in 4-H and FFA and moved on to other careers, she continues to stand out.

“What makes her special is that she didn’t let go of that interest and passion,” Isler says. “She clung to it and turned it into a career that she is excelling at. It’s pretty unique to find something you truly care about and do it for a living.”

Some Things You Just Can’t Teach

When Isler met Doty, he says it was easy to see she loved animals. In fact, he often teases her that she doesn’t get paid to hold baby pigs and talk to the sows. But one can easily see it’s her connection with the animals that makes her so special on the farm.

“I don’t care if you have experience; I can teach you,” Isler says. “What I want to know first and foremost is that you love animals. I can teach anyone to care for hogs, that’s been my whole life, but truly caring about animals is something you can’t teach.”

Doty is quick to point out the learning curve was steep. She came in thinking she knew what to expect, but learned the sheer quantity of animals she’d be caring for each day was much different than what she had grown up experiencing on the family farm.

“I knew how hogs functioned and behaved on a very small scale, but when you move to a farrowing house with hundreds of sows to take care of all the time — that was quite different,” Doty says. “I knew the basic procedures, but I needed to learn how to manage the scale of everything — to keep it all straight in my head and create a plan and goal for the end of the day every single day.”

On her first day, she started in the gestation barn where Isler taught her how to check heat and breed sows.

“Technically, I had bred sows before, but how they did it was completely new to me. I had never checked heat on a large scale. I had never used a boar bot to bring the boar around in front of them. I also had never bred with intra-uterine rods,” she says.

^{Although Summer Doty spends the majority of her time in farrowing, she knows her way around all the jobs on the sow farm.}

She spent the rest of her first week trailing behind Isler, learning how their operation approaches the daily tasks of pork production.

“Learning how to pace myself every day and create a schedule was probably one of the hardest things to learn at first,” Doty adds.

As farrowing barn manager, her responsibilities include caring for the farrowing house, making sure the sows are settled in and farrowing correctly, and most importantly, attending to the day-zero and day-one litters. She also helps the gestation team as needed. In addition, daily maintenance, cleaning and observing animal health are key parts of her job every day.

The list of jobs is long, Doty admits. That might be what surprised her most about working on a pork operation.

“It’s amazing how many things I do in a day — to keep the barn running, to complete the day’s tasks and to set myself up for next day,” Doty explains. “Most people don’t realize how many things there are to do to make the barn run effectively.”

Leading By Example

Of all the work Doty does in the barn, farrowing is what she loves most.

“The pigs are the highlight of my day, every day,” she says. “If you are ever having a bad day, pick up a newborn pig and walk around with it for a while. They always make your day better, whether they know they’re doing it or not.”

As an animal lover himself, Isler says it’s easy to see how much Doty enjoys what she does in the barn. He says her passion for pigs is one of the qualities that separates her from other employees who have good work ethic but don’t have the drive and passion for animals like she does.

In addition to her passion for animals, Doty is a lead-by-example person, Isler says.

“She is one that will take charge and make things happen. Others around her see that, including myself. A lot of times that is one of the better ways to lead. It’s a ‘see what I’m doing and try to keep up’ mentality,” he explains.

On most days, the sow barn is run by Isler, Doty and Hector Zumaya. At times, other employees will come in to help for a day or part of a day when needed. Doty says she feels privileged to work alongside one of the owners.

“It’s nice to know the owner has been in your shoes and wants to know every facet of what’s going on at the farm. It’s such a comfort having an owner who does the job and knows how to do it nearby,” Doty says. “I know I can call him for anything. Also, I learn every day.”

Quiet Wisdom

There’s no denying working in a barn is stressful. Some days, things don’t go right. Animals get sick. Equipment breaks. Mistakes get made. Doty has learned it’s not good to carry stress from day to day.

No matter the industry, compassion fatigue is a real challenge among caretakers. Doty says animal care is much better when employees can take a break from the struggles of the barn.

“When I first started this job, we were going through a bad disease break,” she adds. “You do get fatigued feeling like you can’t do anything and also like you aren’t doing enough. It’s hard to balance that — going home at the end of day and feeling like you haven’t done enough.”

That’s why she has learned going home and forgetting about the barn is key. It allows her to start over the next day with a clean slate and a clean mind.
It’s this kind of quiet wisdom coming from 25-year-old Doty that continually impresses Isler. Although she might be a more reserved personality, she’s also not afraid to share her opinion when it’s needed.

“Summer likes to do her thing and go. She has no issues working or talking with other co-workers. She is extremely easy to get along with,” Isler says. “I’ve never had anyone say anything negative about her personality, which is rare when it comes to any work environment.”

^{Hector Zumaya says he likes working alongside Summer Doty because she sets a great example for others to follow. Photo by Nathan Isler.}

Zumaya says she is easy to work with in the barn.

“Summer is always very helpful to me when I need guidance,” he adds. “She always works hard and cares so much about the pigs.”

Doty also has great initiative. She knows what needs to be done and makes it happen. Because of this, Isler says he continues to hand her more and more responsibility on the farm.

“Just like any good employee, her role has evolved,” he says. “She has taken over a lot of the data entry. She also helps train new employees as well. We transitioned over to a new data system after she arrived. She may protest, but I think she secretly likes being in charge of our data. She likes having the records easy to access and she believes in why we do it.”

Doty says it’s important to know a sow’s history when she comes into the farrowing barn. Being able to provide sows extra care if they’ve had problems in the past, knowing past treatments or if they’ve chronically had a problem, are just a few of many things she looks at that are relevant to her performing her job to the best of her best ability.

“It would be hard to make informed decisions without the data,” she adds.

What’s Next?

People might not realize how rewarding working in a barn with animals can be, Doty says. She has enjoyed jobs in the past, but she never felt like they had payoff at the end of the day. At Islercrest Farms, she says it’s a constant reassurance that she’s done something that matters for the day.

“The work you put in, you see in a day or two. You see how it benefits litters days later, and then at 20 days when you send them to the nursery. It’s very gratifying seeing them grow up, and then to see what you’ve raised and sent out of the barn,” she says.

Isler hopes Doty never forgets how much she is appreciated. He also hopes people outside of commercial pork production who have an interest in pigs and livestock will consider this rewarding career path.

^{L to R: Nathan Isler, Summer Doty and David Isler. The opportunity to learn the business directly from an owner every day is one of Summer Doty’s favorite things about her job.}

“There are a lot of kids out there who like showing pigs like Summer did, but maybe they aren’t certain of what opportunities are out there. They may also have an incorrect view of production agriculture,” he says. “I hope Summer’s story opens people’s eyes to the very real impact you could make in agriculture in this career.”

While, Doty wouldn’t call herself a barn hero, those who work with her and see her in action know otherwise.

“I’m not sure if I’m terribly unique,” she adds, “other than it’s something I enjoy and want to do every day.”

However, if you want to give her a cape, she’s not afraid to wear it.

Read More:

Encourage the Next Generation to Chase Big Dreams

By Her Own Hand: A Farm Girl’s Miraculous Journey from Death to Hope

We Need Each Other in the Pork Industry

There’s Just Something About Stock Show Friends

Rural Revival: Why 3 Pig Farmers’ Wives Quit Teaching and Bought a Coffee Truck