Staff training is the key to a successful pig unit

Big staff changes at one Yorkshire pig unit resulted in a decline in pig performance, but a focus on training and developing the skills of new staff has helped solve the problem.

Last year, retirements and a change of farm management at the 1,500-sow enterprise at Shedden Farms, Shipton, Yorkshire, resulted in a drop in conception rates and an increase in mortality at farrowing.

And according to farm manager Tony Wright, who took over from the assistant manager at the time, these changes “upset the applecart” at the sow to finisher unit, which produces more than 33,000 pigs a year for Cranswick Country Foods.

“Before we were achieving about 93% conception rates, but that dropped to 82-85%. It shows that how the animals perform is all down to the staff, and since I have taken over as farm manager I have focused on training staff; it makes my life easier in the long run and it gives them a sense of worth,” he says.

A total of 15 staff are employed at the unit, which is split into three different management areas – farrowing, sows, weaner/finishers – and by focusing on staff training and development, Mr Wright hopes all staff will be more motivated and production will remain constant.

“Before we were achieving about 93% conception rates, but that dropped to 82-85%. It shows that how the animals perform is all down to the staff, and since I have taken over as farm manager I have focused on training staff; it makes my life easier in the long run and it gives them a sense of worth.”
Tony Wright

“When we took on new staff, we took on a lot of inexperienced staff because the price of the pig at the time wouldn’t allow me to employ more experienced people. But because we have a lot of experienced staff, they can learn from them. And after six months, we put them on professional courses,” says Mr Wright.

In addition to this training, all staff are encouraged to attend industry meetings, such as the Pig Club, to exchange and discuss pig management ideas. And during the vet’s quarterly visit, each team is given a two-hour training session.

A total of four staff, including Mr Wright, are enrolled on training courses in conjunction with BPEX, ranging from beginner level right up to high-level staff management.

Two of the newly employed staff are doing the Stockman Development Programme, which gives stockmen an all-round knowledge of pig production, so in the future they may progress to become unit or section managers.

Mr Wright says: “It’s a general course, aimed at the younger end, covering everything from service to farrowing to finishing. And when staff come back to the farm, they understand the whole process.”

In addition, the head of the farrowing team is enrolled on an Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) course to improve his staff management skills, and Mr Wright is enrolled on the BPEX Professional Managers Development Scheme (PMDS) course, which covers all aspects of management through work-based projects and networking sessions.

He says: “What we are doing on this scale is very similar to running a big production business and people have got to know what they are doing all the time.”

He says production has returned to previous levels, and the short-term drop in performance has shown him keeping staff happy is the key to the smooth-running of the business.