Sow Farm Manager is the #1 “hardest role to fill.”

It ranked highest at 40.28% (29/72), ahead of Dept/Assistant Manager (31.94%). I’ll be honest: I didn’t expect this. I created this survey quite confident that sow farm managers would not rank as the hardest or longest role to fill. In the past, I’ve filled Sow Farm Manager roles in as fast as two weeks. Two weeks! So if you asked me a year ago which swine live production role would be the toughest to fill, I would’ve said nutritionists or veterinarians without hesitating. That’s why our latest Swine Live Production Industry Insights Survey caught me off guard. The role that surfaced as the #1 hardest and #1 longest to fill wasn’t a technical specialist role at all; it was, surprise, surprise, the Sow Farm Manager. However, sow farm managers also showed up as the role most often filled through internal promotions and most often hired from competitors. That sounds contradictory. If companies are promoting people into the role, why is it still the hardest to fill? And if companies ...