This fall, okPORK kicked off the first ever Pork Industry Group at Oklahoma State University. This group of 13 students, all from the college of agriculture, will spend 8 weeks learning about the many career opportunities available to them in Oklahoma’s swine industry.
Most all of these students have shown swine and a few have ties to the commercial swine industry. All of them are passionate about getting a deeper look at pork’ s job opportunities.
We’ve asked them to take notes each time the class meets and we will log them here. Enjoy hearing about the Pork Industry Group in the students’ own words.
October 22, 2019 – Quaid Kennan & Chelsea Mabry
During PIG’s second meeting, we heard from John Hardaway (Seaboard Foods Cell 1), Rob Richard (DNA Genetics), and Roy Lee Lindsey (Oklahoma Pork Council).
Roy Lee Lindsey gave an overview of the pork industry in Oklahoma. At the end of World War II there were 1.4 million pigs in the state. Oklahomans produced these pigs to feed their families. Unfortunately, by 1992 there were only 190,000 pigs being produced because of a horrible market crash. As the state overcame the market crash the amount of pigs began to rise again; today Oklahoma is home to 2.2 million breeding pigs, which produces 9 million piglets annually.
Rob Richard spoke about “The DNA Way”, which included their principle of the business. It ultimately comes down to treating others the way you would want to be treated. This touches on another component he talked about: knowing others’ personality traits. He said, there are four different types of personality – doer, talker, controller, and supporter. He made a big point about keeping a relationship with a customer going after making a sale and be sure you follow up to ensure they are satisfied.
John Hardaway gave an overview of Seaboard Corporation, which is composed by different sectors, including Seaboard Foods which is the largest company in the corporation. They produce 9 million pigs annually and some of their biggest customers are Japan, Mexico, Russia, and Korea. He said the biggest change in the industry since he started in 1982 is the efficiency brought by ever-changing technology.
October 24 – Emily Johnson and Marissa Donica
On October 24th we loaded the bus to head to Ames, Oklahoma, to visit the HANOR sow farm. Once we arrived, we were given booties to help us get from the bus to the farm. Once we got inside the office, we each had to shower in. After everyone was finished, we were introduced to everyone at the farm then we were divided into two groups. This was a 10,000-sow operation weaning 5,000 piglets a week. The sow farm had one farm manager for the east side of the farm and another manager for the west side. The visit was extremely educational and filled with information about the farm and the swine industry as a whole. For those of us who have never seen a commercial swine operation before, it was a very eye-opening experience.
After we showered out of the farm the group traveled down the road to a hunting lodge where HANOR representatives cooked us a pork chop dinner. We also got to visit extensively with many individuals within the swine industry and ask any questions we had. This experience of networking and communicating was very useful and important to us and our potential future career paths.
October 25 – Andrew Coakley and Braden Alwert
The Pork Industry Group (PIG) toured the Seaboard Processing facility in Guymon, Okla., on October 25th. The tour was very insightful into the world of pork processing and the steps taken to ensure a high quality, safe product makes it to the store shelves.
The first part of the tour included a safety video indicating some of the rules and procedures for visitors in the plant, and a video outlining Seaboard as a company. The safety video included things like proper attire and personal protective equipment (PPE) and how to move around the floor of the plant without disrupting the flow of work going on there. The Seaboard video talked about all the different facets of the company like Seaboard Marine, Mount Dora Farms, Butterball, and of course Seaboard Foods. It also outlined that the Guymon plant employs 2,500 people and produces about 4.2 million pounds of edible and inedible products a day.
The second part of the trip was the actual tour. We went through the cold processing section of the plant first and saw how the whole sides of pork are broken up into the cuts of meat you see in the stores. Next, we went through the hot side. There we saw practices like exsanguination and singeing. Finally, we sat back down in the conference room for a question and answer session where we continued to learn more about how the plant operates, the speeds at which it is done, and how the employees interact. Seaboard then treated us to lunch in the cafeteria and we headed back to Stillwater.
October 29 - Lucy Hodges and Makala Parsons
Dr. Rebecca Robbins – Seaboard Veterinarian
Dr. Robbins always knew she wanted to study population medicine. With no farming background, while in college Dr. Robbins took a foundation and built on it. Dr. Robbins likes the people in the swine industry and that is one of the things she enjoys about her job. Dr. Robbins has been with Seaboard since 2013 and focuses on bugs and drugs, along with education on the farms. With her job, Dr. Robbins does not have the chance to see every animal up close so observations and records are key. Every company does things a little bit differently and there is a reason why. Biosecurity affects all areas of the system. Research at Seaboard focuses on ways to improve their products which are their pigs.
Advice that Dr. Robbins had for our class was do something that you enjoy and while in college get as much experience as you can, this includes internships. Take advantage of being a student and learn as much as you can because people will help you as a student. When looking for internships and jobs, companies like educated and motivate young people. The first year after school is a steep learning curve, for everyone.
McKenzie Squires – Zoetis
Zoetis is the world’s largest animal health company. McKenzie specifically works with large pork producers and their veterinarians.
McKenzie’s advice to our class was to look into internships. Diversity plus the willingness to learn leads to opportunities for you. Many people do not know the opportunities in the swine industry. Companies and organizations in the swine industry need to outreach to possible employees, focusing on educating, recruiting and career fairs. When reaching out to companies and organizations we, as possible employees, need to focus on LinkedIn and other social networking.
Cathy Vaughan – Smithfield
Smithfield has gone through much change from Murphy Family Farm to Smithfield Foods. Companies in the swine industry have a lot to offer. Smithfield has about 54,000 employees worldwide with farms all over the world. They are the number one pork producer in the world. They encourage their employees to be a part of other entities such as the Oklahoma Pork council and the National Pork Board. They wean about 21,000 pigs a week, their feed is imported from Kansas They do a lot to support the community, they are one the largest employees in the county. Each employee goes through a 4-week rotation of training, from the same trainer.
Cathy talked about being transparent while being involved in the industry. She talked with our class about how to have conversations and talk about the industry we are involved in. Operation Main Street is a program of the National Pork Board in order to get involved in the community that pork producers are located in. More information about Operation Main Street can be found here: https://www.pork.org/community/operation-main-street/
November 5 - Blair Standish
On November 5th Tina Falcon, Angie Johnson, and Wathina Luthi joined our class to discuss their farms with us. Angie and Tina both work with Tyson and Wathina works with The Maschhoffs. Although they don’t all work for the same company, they all have the same overall goals. All three of these pig farmers and their families provide the land, buildings, and labor for the hog farms and the company they work for provides the pigs, feed, and medicine. They also all farrow to wean which means they breed the sows, farrow them and once the pigs are weaned, they get shipped to another location.
Tina is originally from California and now has two hog operations in Oklahoma. Her family owns their operation that includes 2,000 sows. She works for Tysons so once they farrow their pigs and they’re ready to be weaned a truck comes to load them and they start the process all over again.
Another hog producer who joined us was Angie who is a banker and doesn’t work on the farm like the other ladies. She and her husband got into commercial farming with hopes that her son-in-law would manage it and eventually take over. Her son-in-law is in charge of running the farm while Angie and her husband focus more on helping with the financial part. Their farm houses 2,600 sows and they have contracted with Tysons for 12 years.
The final guest speaker we had was Wathina. She is contracted with The Maschhoffs and has 4,900 sows. She used to manage the farm but then passed it onto her sons. Wathina now works at the farm for her sons.
November 12 - Savanna Dockins
During our sixth class of the Pork Industry Group we learned about how Thomas Craig (The Maschoffs) moved up through the swine industry and the opportunities we have as college students. We also heard from Kylee Deniz from the National Pork Board and her take on understanding each generation of pork consumer.
Thomas Craig, from Mustang Oklahoma, started working at Smithfield farms as an animal caregiver. He had no previous experience in the swine industry but needed a job to help him through college. Once he got out of college, he began to work his way up the ladder, becoming a department head for Smithfield where he was basically a “manager in training”. He was later a sow farm manager and the head of biosecurity where he managed the biosecurity for more than 85,000 head of sows. Then about a year and a half ago, he moved to Mustang and became the senior production manager at The Maschoffs. Here he oversees 8 farms that have roughly 25,000 total sow head. Thomas really pushed the importance of biosecurity and employee turnover. As a production manager, he emphasizes the self-reporting and self-assessment aspects of the farms. With these practices, farms are better managed and less apt to have accidents or biosecurity issues. Thomas explained that the employee turnover is a big challenge in the pig industry but they are learning new ways to curb this problem. The onboarding program that The Maschoffs have adopted allows prospective employers to see the whole farm and everything that goes on and then go through 3 weeks of training, one week for each part of farms’ process. This process better prepares prospective employers and shows them everything they could be doing at the farm. One last piece of advice that Thomas gave to the students was to get as many connections as they can, working indifferent aspects of the industries they are interested in, and not being afraid to step out of their comfort zone.
Kylee Deniz from the National Pork Board presented their approach on how to keep pork on the nation’s dinner tables. She explained the importance of approaching the different generations in different ways. For example, the Gen Z population (ages 7-22) is the most connected generation, using social media to raise community consciousness. This generation values trust and authenticity and the National Pork Board is using this information to make people “believe in pork”. Kylee explained the five reasons we should believe in pork; flavor, health, convenience, safe to eat, and good for the Earth. The National Pork Board is working to educate the public on how pork does not have to be cooked to 160 degrees and turn out dry and flavorless. With the help of the next generation and social media, pork is becoming more prominent on American’s plates. Kyle ended her talk with this, “Be the google search results you want your future employer to find.”