JOHNSTOWN, Ohio – After graduating from college, Heimerl Farms’ gilt selection officer, Brooklyn Ashcraft, knew she wanted to work with animals. Living in Ohio, she had two choices. “I went to college for animal science – so I knew that I wanted to work with animals, and in Ohio, it’s either poultry or swine. The choice for me was easy, it was swine,” she said.

The gilt selection officer’s role involves selecting high-quality gilts and breeding to enhance sow herd productivity, longevity and genetic performance. The job is a blend of science, logistics and relationship building, and, as Ashcraft said, “It’s really different every single day.”

Heimerl Farms is a family-owned and operated farm in Johnstown. Although Johnstown provides a home to many aspects of Heimerl Farms Ltd., the farming operation has swine facilities throughout the state. This creates an unconventional workday for Ashcraft, who is responsible for 16 or 17 barns.

“No two days are alike – usually, it’s a lot of driving,” Ashcraft, one of two gilt selection officers at Heimerl Farms, said. “We have barns all over the state – mine specifically are pretty spread out.”

Weekly visits to assigned barns are a big part of the job, with Ashcraft often spending at least an hour, and sometimes more, at each facility. “It’s a lot of showering,” Ashcraft said, referring to the strict biosecurity protocols. “Every gilt barn is a shower-in, shower-out facility.”

Once inside, the officer’s responsibilities multiply: “I go into the barn and select breeding gilts for customers and for our internal replacements,” Ashcraft said. “I also do all of the service work for the barns that I’m in charge of, like marking market loads, doing blood testing, and health checks to make sure the pigs are doing well in the barns.”

Pig health is paramount at Heimerl Farms. “We have a pretty high standard for pig health,” Ashcraft said. “Especially the gilt barns – we don’t have a lot of death loss and so we take that very seriously.”

Part of the job is assessing the pigs’ health. Ashcraft is responsible for recording and evaluating which animals are ready for market and which are suitable for breeding.

When selecting gilts for customers, balance is key. “It’s structure – when you have this many pigs there’s sometimes some deformities, but we also select for uniformity,” Ashcraft said. “If I start selecting the biggest pigs in the pen, then I need to continue to select the biggest pigs in the pen. So usually I go for some middleweights in the pen – that way if I have to go a little heavier or a little lighter, it’s not such a drastic difference.”

Heimerl Farms’ customers run the gamut, from universities to international buyers. “We send a lot in the United States, but recently we’ve been doing a lot to Mexico,” Ashcraft said. “We’ve done a couple of Philippines orders and some Vietnam stuff. We’ve sold to some universities… and some of it’s research. Every customer is different in what they’re doing.”

Heimerl Farms operates mostly on a contract grower model. “They don’t own the barns or the property,” Ashcraft said. “They own a few – the rest are contract growers. Families and whoever, they own the barns and the property, and they do all the daily caretaking, and Heimerl owns the pigs and supplies the feed and the medicine.”

This means that the gilt selection officer must be an effective communicator. “A lot of the guys who do the daily caretaking look to me as sort of a stepping stone for health – like they come to me, if I don’t know what to do, then I go to the vet because there’s only one of her and there’s like 167 barns or sites in our system.”

Many gilt selection officers come to the job with animal science backgrounds, but not always with expertise in swine. “I didn’t have any swine experience coming into this job at all… I went to college for animal science, and I knew that I wanted to work with animals, but I didn’t have any exact intentions to work with swine,” Ashcraft said. “It took me about three or four months to get pretty comfortable in what I was doing.”

From strict biosecurity routines and health checks to customer order fulfillment and barn management, Ashcraft’s job is integral to the farm’s operations. Her role demands adaptability, strong communication, a keen eye for animal health and quality, and, above all, a passion for working with people and pigs alike.

The gilt selection team, veterinary staff, and growers all work closely together, forming a collaborative support network. And that’s the best part of Ashcraft’s job.

“I really like the farmers, the growers. They’re really good people, and everyone is kind of in different situations, different backgrounds,” she said. “I’ve really enjoyed getting to know a lot of them. I went to one of their hog roasts and I’ve gone to some hockey games, too.”