Jim Coakley, swine herd manager at Oklahoma State University, and McKenzie Squires, Strategic Account Manager at Zoetis, recently spoke with The Pig Site’s Sarah Mikesell.
Jim, you have just been announced as the next Zoetis Champion of Care. Tell us a little bit about you and what you do at Oklahoma State University.
I'm the swine herd manager at OSU, but my background is in production agriculture of all kinds. I'm from a little bitty town originally called Hobart, Oklahoma, which is in the southwest part of the state. My wife and I moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma and that's when I started managing the swine farm at the university. We run between 80 to 100 sows, and I manage all the facets from breeding, feeding and farrowing. We produce pigs for judging, show pigs, market hogs, etc.
I assume the students are heavily involved?
Absolutely, I tell everybody there's no way that we could make it if we didn't have student workers.
McKenzie, what qualities do the Champions of Care emulate?
When we think of Champions of Care at Zoetis, we truly are looking for that slat level Champion. When it comes to Jim, I think he takes that to the next level – not just being a Champion in the barn, but also the work and advocating that he does for the students in the industry. It goes beyond what he does at Oklahoma State.
Jim, everyone can be a Champion of Care – how are you instilling this mindset in the students that you work with every day?
The student workers and the classroom activity that we have in labs and things at Oklahoma State – I try to work with them and work beside them because at the end of the day we're producing a product that we want to be high quality. We want it to be safe, and we want it to be desired by the consumers.
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