Measuring Success

In the past year I have had the opportunity to meet many other pork producers from around the country.  It has humbled me to know that there are some really intelligent, forward-thinking people in the Pork Industry that are so well educated and well versed in the industry that work in production.  It gives me faith in the pork industry to grow and adapt.  Upon meeting these various people, I ask about there operations, like most farmers do on first introduction.  After figuring out the size, scope, and type of operation other farmers have, I begin to ask about there company culture; culture is the motivation behind the way companies make money.  Without the motivation to do the job, it won't be finished, or done well. 

Most of the farming community tends to have a facts and logistics based culture.  We thrive on being about to coordinate load times, plan the planting and harvest figures, using the newest proven science to make selection decisions.  It has given us the opportunity to select for efficiency in our management and in our products.  We value the practical and tangible.  We tend to measure how much each part of the process can produce.  For example, our Pigs/Sow/Year (PSY) bonus that is fairly standard in the industry.  It is a very logical measure of how much we get out of each sow in the herd,  but is it really getting us towards our goal of making money?  Farmers can see the obvious drawbacks to the system, because it doesn't take into consideration how much product we get to market, or the quality of the piglet produced.  A farm with a lower PSY could produce more #1 rated market hogs. 

We need to look at our production as a complete system.  This entails looking at how we generate revenue; selling pounds of pork.  We really don't care how many head we produce, as long as its within our contracted amount, but rather how many pounds we are sending to market.  It's about throughput, not about volume in the system.  By managing to maximize the quality of our end product, we can also maximize our revenue.