By Sue Schulteis
The Maschhoffs’ Director of Health and Animal Care is based in Carlyle, Illinois, and provides direct leadership, training and development for a team of Animal Care professionals. This position develops technical recommendations for regional health management programs centered around the company’s core health platform and utilizes objective measurements to ensure the animal health and care strategies are fiscally and socially responsible. The role includes shared responsibility for protecting the integrity of the supply chain, and specifically, champions food safety, regulatory and customer compliance policies. The role also shares responsibility of achieving our GAPSY goals with the production team and regional veterinarians.
Duties and Functions
- Oversight and execution of the core health platform and best management practices within the regions, collaborating with regional leadership to maintain consistency in a science-based approach to health
- Administer health and animal care training and execution of regulatory and certification programs to ensure best management practices are consistent with all applicable industry, governmental and customer standards
- Oversee execution and continuous improvement of the Animal Welfare Response Program for internal and external stakeholders
- Develop a science-based research program in coordination with the company’s research and innovation strategy focused on pig health to improve company profitability
- Accountable for development and management of departmental annual operating budget, and the execution of the budget in collaboration with the regional VPs and veterinarians as measured against Agristats average costs
- Maintain a valid veterinary client-patient relationship, providing technical support to regional disease management plans including farm visits, root cause analysis, countermeasure development, and results monitoring
- Responsible for strategies that strengthen as well as leverage relationships with pharmaceutical partners to ensure cost competitiveness while optimizing technical services support
- Provide direct leadership to the Animal Care Coordinator through strong communication, active goal setting, and routine coaching of management behaviors, consistent with company core values
- Support the hiring, staffing, development, and onboarding of veterinary and animal care professionals
- Development of the herd and regional veterinarians to support GAPSY and any bio-economical decisions within the regions.
- Routine touchpoints with each regional VP of Production, attendance of at least 3 regional monthly meetings within each region annually, and involvement in the weekly production call with the VPs and innovation team
Position Qualifications
- Minimum Education: Doctor of Veterinary Medicine required
- Minimum Years of Experience: Minimum of 8 years previous veterinary swine experience
- License or Certification: A valid license to practice veterinary medicine in the State of Illinois, and the future acquisition of licensure in additional states in which the company conducts business are also requirements for this position.
Click here to see more...