"COLLECTIS® made my life easier" - Greg Lebowa

Like the majority of pork producers, boar studs are faced with the challenges of finding and retaining quality employees. Greg Lebowa from ASG was facing these challenges on a daily basis.

The 150 head boar stud is located on the outskirts of Edmonton, Alberta, a major oil field area . The boar stud is, therefore, surrounded by oil related companies and the competition for quality employees is very stiff. In addition, there are almost no swine facilities in the area, so the availability of people with a swine background, is very limited.

Having tried numerous strategies of employee management, Greg heard about the COLLECTIS® from Genes Diffusion and decided to purchase one machine for the facility. After 60 days of using the COLLECTIS® successfully, a second COLLECTIS® unit was installed. Greg Lebowa, General Manager of ASG, has been using the COLLECTIS® technology for almost a year now and shares his comments with us.

Have you seen any difference in semen output since you switched to the COLLECTIS® ?

Greg Lebowa (GL) : At the beginning when the technology was new, we did see a slight reduction in volume per ejaculate, but after a couple months the boars were back to their original volume and concentration. Today, we do not see any difference in volume and there is no difference in semen morphology. We also have not noticed any increase in contamination or bacteria and semen shelf life is unaffected.

How many boars are currently being collected by the machine versus hand ?

GL : Over 80% of the boars today are collected with the COLLECTIS®. Some boars are collected by hand because they do not give as much with the machine as they do by hand. The rest are too big to exit through the side gate we designed and we have to collect these in a different collection area.

After a year of using the COLLECTIS®, has collection efficiency improved ?

GL : It used to take over 6 hours non stop for our team of 4 people to collect 65 boars on Sunday. It was a long process, and employees were exhausted. Now it takes less than 4 hours; cutting our collection time by 1/3. In addition, the employees work in a better environment and have better morale. Since the boars are housed in large pens and our barn is quite long, it requires a lot of time for the team to move boars. Because of our building design we use one operator (2 collection pens), and 1 runner per machine. Collectors regularly collect between 10 and 12 boars per hour when using COLLECTIS®.

How was the installation and set up of the COLLECTIS® ?

GL : Genes Diffusion not only provided the COLLECTIS® but also provided assistance in designing the collection area to maximize production efficiency. Then they installed the COLLECTIS® and provided on site training for the employees.

How easy is the training of employees on the machine ?

GL : Fairly easy: A collector does not need to come in contact with the boar during collection. By working from a pit the new employees are not scared of the animal and learn faster. Also new people tend to let go of the penis too soon. With the COLLECTIS® , this does not happen. The same thing holds true with experienced collectors after too many collections in a row, the COLLECTIS® maintains a consistent grip eliminating technician error from inexperienced or fatigued employees.

So the COLLECTIS® also has been a tool to help you improve people management ?

GL : Yes. It give us so much more flexibility in managing our employees: When one employee is on leave, the rest of the team can handle the work easily and still complete production in a timely manner. The COLLECTIS® allows the employee to be more efficient, it would have normally taken us 2 or 3 hours extra per day when the team was short one person. Therefore, the team has a lot less frustration and better morale.

After all these comments would you recommend the COLLECTIS® to other studs ?

GL : Yes. It helps better manage employees: the employees feel better about their job, and morale has improved. When the team is short, it is not a big deal anymore. The team bonds together and gets it done. It is also a sound financial decision. Saving a third of the time in collecting is equivalent to 1.3 person or $33,000 per year. I will pay for the investment in about 2 years.

 

Swine products and technology