WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Today’s hog industry is dealing with a shortage of labor and fewer farms, a northwest Indiana pig farmer said recently.

Brian Martin, a fifth-generation farmer, talked about the industry and how things have changed over the last 30 years or so during the Nov. 18 Purdue Commercial AgCast.

He said labor is the industry’s biggest need.

“Through the last 10 years – and part of that is because the rural workforce (has) a lot of pressure on it, unemployment’s low – (there) seems to be fewer people that truly want a job and that’s resulted in us, the industry, becoming a lot more active in immigrant workers. The visa that is used in our industry predominantly is TN Visa, which is a college graduate from could be Eastern Europe, could be from Africa, could be from Mexico.

“We are 80 percent employed. Our employees are TN Visa, which is a three-to-five year. And it puts you into a whole different process of finding people. The good thing is you’re finding folks that are looking for opportunity, that want to come to work, that are leaving a place and seeing a broad horizon in front of them.”

Martin said with foreign workers, the farm’s turnover rate has moved from near 80 percent annually to 30 percent over the last six years, and that comes with improved production. Disease events can influence that, he said, but overall, their labor force is much more stable.

“We focus a lot on the number of our team who exceed one year with us,” Martin explained. “We want that number to continually rise, and we’ve seen that be successful through time with them. We work hard at cross training so everyone sees the vision, understands across the system (the) why and how, and what a victory really looks like.”

The biggest change in the pork industry and beyond pork, such as in grain, is the number of farms has decreased through time, he said. Indiana is definitely independent oriented, so farmers would think only in their realm and wouldn’t think about potential partnerships outside of just being independent folks, Martin said.

“I’ll give credit to dad and folks ahead of me, as we think collaboratively. Here’s a good example, I was 17, dad went to his neighbor and said, ‘I don’t want to plant this year. Let’s partner and you provide this, I’ll provide that, and we’ll do it all together.’ Same idea as what we’ve done in pig farming through the years is look for wonderful partners, grow in it and then feed off of the strengths.”

Consolidation has made the industry smaller, Martin noted. It has become a small enough industry that if you name the top 40 companies, those in the industry know all those names. Producers would know someone in every company out there; they have connections, he said.

The network is smaller and people know each other by reputation, Martin said, adding collaboration is pretty easy, which is a nice thing about it. That connects people much differently than it did 30 years ago, he pointed out.

Martin offered advice to students who might be interested in working on a hog farm or potentially owning one in the future. He recommended trying a broad spectrum of things to better find their comfort spot in what they want to do.

“So I guess ultimately I’m saying diverse internships for kids while they’re in school,” Martin said. “(They should take) opportunities to establish as many and broad relationships as they can, so knowing lots of people. (Purdue’s job fairs) are obviously an opportunity to be exposed to big industry, from drug companies to packing companies to production companies, so that there’s plenty of diverse opportunity to meet people, set up different experiences, and then find the one that clicks, or the ones that click, and go do it.”