Breeder Central
Cassidy Hayes and his father own and operate HF Genetics, a growing showpig operation in Port Lavaca, Texas.
One word that best describes how you work: Nonstop
Current Mobile Device: iPhone 6
Current Computer: HP Notebook PC
Current Camera: Nikon 1
First , tell us what you feel separates your business from other operations in the show pig business?
Customer Service is what we try to pride ourselves on. We bend over backwards to make sure customers are 100% satisfied, both with their showpig project and/or semen purchase. Unlike many in modern times, we still market a high percentage of our pigs via private treaty in order to cater to families who enjoy a personal buying experience. I spend a large amount of time on the road during the growing seasons doing project visits and assisting families along the way and I usually am up until late hours on the phone tending to our customers questions/concerns.
What websites, apps or tools can’t you live without? Why?
Showpig.com and The Pig Planet are a must for staying updated in this industry. Facebook and our website are essential for our marketing efforts and getting new information out to our customers. Microsoft Excel is also extremely important for us from a record keeping standpoint and I’m a big fan of the National Hog Farmer website/magazine for finding new innovative production techniques to infuse into our business.
How do you keep your to-list?
I use the iCal app on my iPhone and don’t know what I ever did without it.
Besides your phone and computer, what gadget can’t you live without and why?
My TV and an iHome for playing music in the barn
What do you listen to while you work?
Either sports radio, Metallica or some other form of 90’s rock
What everyday thing are you better at than everyone else? What’s your secret?
I don’t know if we are better than anyone else at anything but we do live and breath this. My judging experience in college helped me mold an image in my mind of what they need to look like and we put a huge amount of thought into every decision made, nothing is done on a whim. We try to be incredibly user-friendly and help families from the day they purchase their project until the minute they walk into the show ring in as hands-on of a fashion as possible.
What are you currently reading?
Right now, it’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People” and Harvard Business Review’s “Strategic Marketing”. The Seedstock Edge and Texas Pork Producer’s ” Producer Connection” is always mixed in with that as well.
How do you recharge?
I’m a huge basketball fan and now that the NBA season has fired back up I will usually watch games when I get home in the evenings to help unwind.
What is your favorite and least-favorite chore?
I really enjoy meeting customers to look at babies and help them find their next project while also seeing which matings worked and didn’t work. Least favorite is definitely pressure washing the farrowing house and nursery.
How long does it take you to picture, sort and write a description for ONLY one pig in an online sale?
Hard to quantify but I’d guess 20 minutes would be close. Writing the descriptions takes the longest for me personally.
Describe your ideal customer.
Folks that are understanding and easy to work with. There is tremendous gamble, uncertainty and stress involved in the livestock business and it is nice to deal with people that are understanding of that. When working with families with less experience, it’s really nice when they ask questions, listen and try to learn. We want them to be successful as much as they want themselves to be and we are certainly here to try to make that happen.
Fill in the blank: I’d love to see _Mike Fischer________ answer these same questions.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
There are actually two quotes I’d share. Chuck Real told me when I was trying to make the decision of what to do following my college career at A&M to “Do what you’re passionate about because that’s what you’ll be the happiest doing”. That wisdom ultimately led me back here developing HF Genetics and I’m very glad I made that decision. Like I said earlier, I am a big basketball junkie and, in particular, a Spurs fan. There’s an old quote on the wall in their locker room that I think is great for keeping your focus and staying the course for what one is trying to achieve. “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before” – Jacob Riis