Meat+Poultry - June 2020 - 27

"This really raised our game in providing a safe
environment for all our associates."
Malenke and Getman hold monthly
meetings with small groups from the various
departments within the company. Every
meeting addresses personal safety first. The
pressure to maintain a safe work environment
for everyone involved starts at the top and
works its way down.
"We tell them, 'if your supervisor is getting
on you because you don't have your mesh
glove, your personal protective equipment on,
it's my fault, because I'm the one getting on
them. I want you to go home to your families
safe every night,'" Malenke said. "I might send
them home tired, but I absolutely do not want
to send them home injured. These are hard
jobs and we do everything we can, to be as
proactive as we can be to reduce risk as much
as possible. This is something that is always
top of mind for me and the management team.
Protecting our people is priority number one."
Animal well-being at PPMC runs parallel to
worker safety. Over the years, Perdue has led
the way for animal handling and well-being,
specifically in its chicken production. Now, the
company's Niman Ranch and Coleman brands,
along with Sioux Preme's dedication, work
well under the Perdue banner of brands.
"Perdue led the way on antibiotic-free
poultry production and has grown to be
the largest organic poultry producer in the
country," Malenke said. "So really what they
were doing on the bird side we were doing on
the pig side. So that really made us a good fit."
Sioux Preme, before the Perdue acquisition,
built its live hog barn in 2004 and used Temple
Grandin's design parameters, including
specific angles and human walk areas to keep
animals calm. From there animals move to
the controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS)
system. Added in 2006, the CAS system began
operating in 2007. But Malenke said the "most
valuable, priceless," aspect of the facility's
animal handling on the live side is a longterm supervisory team consisting of members
with 15-plus years of experience each in
humane handling.
The facility also features video monitoring,
regularly reviewed by a third-party. "This
is unique in pork processing and adds an
important step to ensure all pigs at the plant
are treated with care," Malenke said.

ATTRIBUTING TO SUCCESS
PPMC's unique ability to segregate carcasses
and products throughout the process from
harvest to shipping multiple times on a daily
basis separates it from others within the pork
processing industry.
"That's our niche," Getman said. "That's
what we do different."
Changeovers to different products or
brands take about 10 minutes and are done
according to a specific piece count. They occur
four times a day counting the first run at the
beginning of the day. Workers pull the product
once its run is finished and place a new empty
container for the new run, make sure the
correct labels are ready then start the next
brand or product.
Carcasses in the cooler waiting for
fabrication might look the same to the
untrained eye, but they enter the cooler
segregated based on the brand or type. Each
has a unique series of numbers stamped on
the side to identify the product and brand
it's meant to be used for and the farm that it
came from.
"It's not traditional because traditional,
large-scale, modern production is going to say

Automation not only
makes previous tasks less
labor intensive, but more
efficient with more precise
and consistent results.

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