Growing Up Together

SVC's reputation as a staff that works hard has paid off over time, Loula believes. The clinic has been very fortunate to have a very stable clientele that has grown larger over the years.

Plus, Loula feels lucky that the bulk of their Minnesota/Iowa clients are simply exceptional producers to start with. “I was very lucky to begin practice in what turned out to be a great pig area,” he asserts. In fact, some of the top 40 U.S. pork producers live within 50 miles of his home practice area.

“These clients were young, intelligent, knowledgeable, aggressive, great learners, had a willingness to learn, wanted to grow and wanted to be the best,” Loula observes. “Honestly, we learned together, taught each other and grew and expanded together.

“That is why I tell people that we (SVC) kind of grew up together with these producers — we did the first pseudorabies eradications with them, the first swine dysentery and atrophic rhinitis eradications. When you think about these producers, they have been through a lot,” Loula stresses.

Those producers were industry leaders almost from the start. Loula says part of the success of SVC has stemmed from their leadership in the areas of management concepts and particularly disease eradication programs. “I think we have become known for either being the leader or being early adapters of most new technologies,” he says.

SVC was an early pioneer in moving pork production clients to improved genetics, artificial insemination, multi-site production systems and disease eradication, he adds.

In turn, SVC's producer-clients have been unique in that they have been open to help from SVC in many areas over the years, seeking ways to improve production efficiencies.

Loula says he has always prided himself, and urged SVC staff as well, to push clients to excellence. “Our veterinary staff is committed to making sure that our clients make good decisions, and we challenge them if they are about to make poor decisions. It's been part of the relationship that we have built with them over the years. They've come to expect that we'll challenge them if we feel that something they are proposing is not the right thing,” he says.

Learning through Education

Client training dates back to when Loula began his swine practice career.

Loula started a “Breakfast Club” with 7-8 producers that met once a month. These were the “big players” in Minnesota pork production.

“We would sit around and talk pigs, and after breakfast we would sometimes go out to see someone's new barn we had talked about or look at someone's new genetics. I bragged about that small group to others because they produced about 30,000 market hogs annually. Now that group has probably tripled that number weekly!” Loula reports.

In 1993, Loula hosted a half dozen producers on a trip to Europe to study artificial insemination (AI). Just three years later, all of these producers had adapted AI on their farms.

Big client meetings continued over the years, but in the last decade these have been downsized to small group sessions for more one-on-one discussions.

Loula says the current producer client list is an interesting mix. There are large family operations as well as 100- to 200-sow, traditional family farms.

“We don't treat them any differently regardless of their size. We feel they have to adapt the same technology — modern buildings, AI, modern genetics, etc., to make money.

“So if you go to our smaller farms, the majority of those would look just like the bigger farms, except for their size,” Loula points out.

Successes, Challenges

Loula ticks off the successes his clinic has had over the years in eradicating major swine pathogens — pseudorabies, mange, atrophic rhinitis, Actinobacillus pleuropneumonia and Transmissible gastroenteritis — plus big gains in controlling porcine circovirus.

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) has been eradicated from many farms in Loula's practice, but just like other areas of the country, a number of these hog units became reinfected.

The catch was the pork industry lacked a real vision as to the means of preventing the spread of this devastating virus, he says.

“Ten years ago, PRRS was spreading across Iowa and southern Minnesota, and we thought it was lateral aerosol spread of the virus. But we first had to improve biosecurity to eliminate boots, equipment and people factors,” he explains.

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