Congratulations to all Q4 winners!

posted on Wednesday, January 20, 2016

The week #53 and Q4 win for sow farm SelectPride goes to Lori and the Sow 118 team!

If we had an award for perseverance it would go to the team of Adam, Dalton, Martin, Doug, Tiffany, Donnie, Tony, Doug, Teresa, and Lori!

Located near Weldon, Sow 118 had an advantage as a PRRS-negative site and was leading the pack most of the way through the fourth quarter, however broke with PRRS just after Thanksgiving. “It was devastating for us at the time but the sows are recovering we...ll, and it could have been much worse considering it was a field strain,” said Lori, the manager of the farm. But any manager will tell you that when a farm breaks, it can devastate a crew. Not only because they take tremendous pride and ownership in the animals and the farm, but also because it can send a farm spiraling down the SelectPride ranking.

But Lori and her team have been working hard to improve on some really important areas of production, and they had worked hard enough that it paid off in the end.

You see, most of the SelectPride determination is based on the achievement of production targets like farrowing rate, pigs born alive and total born conversion. However once the points are totaled the sow supervisors add in the points earned from what we refer to as team “incentives,” --- points the farm can earn for their safety performance, biosecurity audit scores, production well-being audit scores and their ability to keep their fellow team members engaged and retention high. They had just enough of those points to cover those final weeks of performance loss and finished first place for Q4.

“We’ve put a lot of focus on retraining on those basic fundamentals of the incentive score,” said Lori. “It’s easy to get caught up in the daily responsibilities and lose focus on those important aspects that strengthen a farm.”

Cross training is also something they do on a regular basis according to Lori. “There really isn’t a job on the farm that each one of us couldn’t jump in and do, which really helps us work as a team. If breeding or farrowing department gets done early, they head over and help the others finish their chores, We’re a team here.” ‪#‎billionpounds‬

Sow 118 is tied with Mikey and the Sow 28 team for the most overall wins which is five, and puts them head to head with John and the Sow 26 team for most top ten finishes. John and Sow 26 have landed in the top ten 19 of 28 quarters and Lori and Sow 118 has 18 of 28 possible quarters.

Congratulations to ALL Q4 winners!

1st Place – Sow 118
2nd Place – Sow 26 Fonken
3rd Place – Sow 16 Parker
4th Place – Sow 113
5th Place – Sow 24 Thorsen
6th Place – Sow 28 Ringgold
7th Place – Sow 30 Popcorn
8th Place – Sow 18 Jones
9th Place – Sow 22 Cartwright
10th Place – Sow 25 Wright