Congratulations to all of the Q4 Multiplication Growers Select Pride winners!
posted on Tuesday, January 31, 2017
As the awards continue to roll in, we’re excited to congratulate Ryan Lens on his Q4 Multiplication Grower SelectPride win! Ryan is the manager of Kerrigan G-042 and along with Daniel Page is responsible for the daily health and care of 1,500 gilts at the site.
Ryan and Daniel oversee an important piece of the gilt development system. They’re part of one of three multiplication flows which sends selected female weaned piglets to Nordak GDUs. After those pigs are 40-60 pounds, Ryan and Daniel take over the responsibility of their care until they are around 200-230 pounds and ready for a GDU—typically Opal, Lucas County and Nelson.
Also referred to as multiplication grow-out, Ryan, Daniel and the entire multiplication grower and GDU team are caring for our future sows. Grow-out teams work to provide them with good care and help select for soundness of their legs and structure, underline and overall health.
“Ryan is constantly striving to be better,” said GDU Supervisor, Tysen Abell. “Even when he lands in the top SelectPride spot he’s asking himself what he can improve for himself, his employee and his pigs— it’s something that I really respect about him.”
This quarter, Ryan and Daniel scored a 100% on production well-being and biosecurity audits and were able to keep the site’s death loss below 1%— a tremendous feat. “It’s not me, it’s my team,” said Ryan. “I’ve got one of the best supervisors and technicians in the company. Daniel is extremely reliable, has excellent problem solving skills and can fix just about anything. We support each other but more importantly, challenge each other to do better every day.”
“I’ve learned so much from Ryan in the short year that I’ve worked for Iowa Select Farms,” said Daniel, the farm technician at Kerrigan. “He’s taught me the importance of getting in the barn every day and walking pens to look at each individual pig. We check the ventilation, feed lines—everything is important and nothing goes unnoticed.”
“It’s not about winning an award,” said Ryan. “It’s about keeping death loss low, taking advantage of training opportunities, keeping our site clean, and making sure that our pigs are happy and healthy.”
Ryan and Daniel share the Q4 Select Pride win with other top growers—Seth Preston, Randy Abell and Trevor Spencer. In fact, Seth claimed both the 2nd and 3rd place spot as he is responsible for managing two farms in the multiplication grower system.
“Seth and Trevor are both newcomers to the list, but I’m not surprised they are in the top five, they both are improving by leaps and bounds,” said Tysen. “I’m actually a little bit jealous. Trevor has a distinct way of asking just the right questions and is quickly figuring out what took me more than 10 years to learn. It’s admirable.”
“I think the reason that I’m doing so well is because the support network I have around me,” said Trevor, who has been the Manager of Priest G-046 since last May. “Ryan, Daniel and Tysen are at my site at least once a week helping me out since I’m by myself. Whether it’s with load ins/outs or helping me identify and handle issues in a timely manner, they’re always leading me in the right direction. It’s a team mentality around here.”
“The one thing that this group of guys has is common is that they all have that want and desire to do better,” said Tysen. “They are consistent with their results and overall do such a tremendous job.”
“Their willingness to work on things and push themselves so that they’re never quite satisfied with their results is amazing,” said Tysen. “As their Supervisor, I couldn’t ask for a better group of guys to work with.” #billionplus
Congratulations again to all of the Q4 Multiplication Growers Select Pride winners!
1st place: Ryan Lens, Kerrigan, G-042
2nd place: Seth Preston, Adamson, N-117
3rd place: Seth Preston, Damewood, G-041
4th place: Randy Abell, Lee, G-038
5th place: Trevor Spencer, Priest, G-046
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