When Experience, Leadership and Structure Turn into Results – Team Abildgård

On December 1, 2025, I started working with Team Abildgård – a team of four men and one woman, all bringing valuable experience and strong opinions about how things should be done.

Two of the employees have been working in Denmark, at the same farm, for many years. And with experience naturally come established routines and habits.

At first, we needed a little time to get to know each other and build mutual trust. But once that trust was established, things really started moving forward.

Since then, I have visited the farm every four weeks.

Our starting point – E-control results:

19.2 liveborn piglets per litter
16.8 weaned piglets per litter
12.4% pre-weaning mortality
37.6 weaned piglets per sow per year (PSY)
1,796 Danish feed units (FE) per sow per year

These were already good results. However, the challenge was that performance fluctuated too much from week to week.

That is why our focus has not only been on the pigs, but very much on the people behind the results.

Our key focus areas have been:

* Leadership
* Structure and daily routines
* Teamwork
* Confidence and individual development
* Attention to the small details
* Consistency – every single day

The latest E-control results now show:

19.4 liveborn piglets per litter
17.4 weaned piglets per litter
10.5% pre-weaning mortality
39.7 weaned piglets per sow per year (PSY)
1,514 Danish feed units (FE) per sow per year

And looking at the most recent four weeks:

8.9% pre-weaning mortality
41.4 weaned piglets per sow per year (PSY)

These are results Team Abildgård can truly be proud of!

For me, this project once again demonstrates that consultancy is not always about providing all the answers.

When working with experienced employees, it is equally important to recognise individual strengths, build trust, bring the team together and turn existing knowledge into consistent daily performance.

When people succeed, the results often follow.

Today, we celebrated Team Abildgård with breakfast rolls and cake – a well-deserved recognition of their hard work and dedication!

Congratulations to the entire team!

Karina Mikkelsen
Farestalds Eliten
30 years of practical experience in pig production – helping farms and their teams achieve sustainable results.

#FarestaldsEliten #Pig333 #PigProduction #SowManagement #PigletSurvival #FarmManagement #Leadership #TeamDevelopment #AnimalWelfare #SwineProduction

Back home after an intensive week in Slovakia – working with 4,500 sows and a fantastic team

This week I had the opportunity to work hands-on with a large 4,500-sow DanBred herd, using free-farrowing systems.

Most of the employees are Slovakian, but the team also includes several other nationalities. Among them were three African employees who had previously worked in Denmark

It was especially nice to see that the experience and knowledge they gained in Denmark can now continue to be used in another European country – and that they have been given the opportunity to continue developing within pig production.

During the week, we spent many hours together in the farrowing unit, focusing on:

Sow management and care
Feeding curves
Colostrum management
Doing the right thing at the right time
Structured work plans
Teamwork and communication
And all the small practical details that make a big difference in everyday production

For me, hands-on training is not about standing outside the pen telling people what to do.

It is about working together with the team, understanding their daily challenges and finding solutions that actually work in practice.

It has been an intense week with long days in the barn – but also a week filled with great energy, ambition and people who genuinely want to improve

I didn’t see much of Slovakia…

But that wasn’t really the plan

Thank you to the entire team for the warm welcome, the hard work and the willingness to learn and develop. I look forward to following your progress

#FarestaldsEliten #PigProduction #DanBred #FarrowingManagement #AnimalWelfare #SowManagement #Teamwork #FarmManagement #HandsOnTraining #Slovakia #InternationalTraining

Hello Pig333 – greetings from Denmark
My name is Karina, founder of Farestalds Eliten, and I have worked with pig production since 1997.
For the past 6 years, I have travelled with my hands-on consulting and training, visiting more than 300 pig farms in 18 countries.
My main focus is the farrowing unit – piglet survival, colostrum, weak piglets, cross-fostering, nurse sows, daily routines and, most importantly, the people working with the pigs every day.
I strongly believe that good results are not created by protocols alone.
Knowledge must work in practice.
That is why I work hands-on together with farm managers and employees – in the barn, with the pigs – turning knowledge into simple routines that the whole team understands and can use every day.
I look forward to sharing practical experiences, ideas and results here on Pig333 – and to learning from pig producers and professionals from around the world.
Good people + good routines + attention to detail = better results.
#PigProduction #Farrowing #PigletSurvival #FarmManagement #HandsOnTraining #Pig333

I am new here, look forward to follow :-)