Hermitage Genetics: Standing out with the "easy to manage" sow

 

Emphasising the totality of traits in producing easy-to-manage maternal lines, Hermitage counts its core advantages in the evolving pig genetics industry.

 

by Ngai Meng CHAN

 

 

The average pig herd size in Ireland is now the largest in Europe with Hermitage Genetics the leading supplier of pig genetics in the country.

 

Now a leading global player, it all started from the establishment of a pedigree pig herd by the late Hermitage founder John Joe Nolan in 1958. Ian Goodbody, Hermitage's director of export services, tells FEED Business Worldwide that pedigree pig breeding stock farms, in which purebred pigs were raised through selective breeding, were ubiquitous across Europe at that time, particularly in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

 

The industry began to change in the 1960s with the entry of large pig-breeding companies such as PIC, which led to the supersession and consolidation of pedigree farms.

 

According to Ian Goodbody, Hermitage was faced with an obvious but difficult choice – to remain as a traditional pedigree farm or become the next leading pig-breeding company. It chose the latter and never looked back. It was to be a milestone in the company's 57-year history.

 

Up till the 1980s in Ireland, he says, Artificial Insemination (AI), the mainstay of modern-day pig genetics progress, was only done at a small government service centre.

 

Hermitage then led Ireland's pig genetics industry by pioneering AI development in the country. In 1987, Ned Nolan, son of John Joe Nolan and managing director, travelled with his wife to America to carry out AI research.

 

"It was this trip that had the biggest influence on the direction and success of Hermitage. Soon after we had returned to Ireland, we started our first AI stud (farm) with 14 boars," Ned says.

 

"My father helped build our first laboratory and AI station and saw our first sales before his untimely passing in January 1988. As AI was a very new concept then, I travelled across the country doing AI demonstrations, training livestock farmers how to use AI. It was a success with 50% growth each year," Ned adds.

 

In 1989, Hermitage established a new High Health Great Grand Parent (GGP) farm in Ireland to form the basis of its high heath breeding pyramid for the future, says Ian Goodbody, who started his relationship with Hermitage in 1991 by buying breeding stock from the company for clients in Asia, in particular Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan.

 

 

Meeting new needs

 

In opening up export markets, Ian Goodbody says, a pig genetics company like Hermitage has to take account of the differing health status requirements between countries when planning the movement of breeding stock, making sure their high health status are maintained all the time. This is very important to customers, he adds.

 

Fortunately, Ireland enjoys the natural advantages of being an island nation. The waters around it, he says, provide a natural barrier to the movement of animals, helping to maintain the biosecurity of the national pig herd.

 

In addition to the statutory European Union regulations on pig movements and health testing as required by the Irish Department of Agriculture, Irish pig producers also implement a voluntary second line of defence which comprises a set of stringent guidelines laid down by the Irish Pig Health Council.

 

 

As part of this monitoring system for the nucleus breeding and multiplication units, a consultant vet regularly inspects Hermitage farms on a quarterly basis. This is followed by a visit to the slaughterhouse, a routine designed to monitor the animals' SPF (specific-pathogen-free) status. The system concentrates in particular on monitoring freedom from the following diseases:

 

*Aujeszky's Disease

*Swine Dysentery

*Progressive Atrophic Rhinitis

*Enzootic Pneumonia

*Antinobacillus PPN

*Mange

*Streptococcal Meningitis

*P.R.R.S.

*T.G.E./P.R.C.V.

 

Next to biosecurity, Ian Goodbody says, customers are most concerned about cutting the cost of production. "They want to produce quality lean meat at the lowest cost per kilogramme."

 

With the size of pig herds continually expanding, producers are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain labour quality in their farms. So it has been Hermitage's main goal to produce an easy-to-manage sow with all-round traits, which it considers to be the most profitable for the farmer in the future. 

 

Hermitage believes that the easy-to-manage sow is the way forward for the industry. While the requirements for maternal lines (also called "dam lines" or "sow lines"), which are selected primarily for good female reproductive performance (but also to a lesser extent for food conversion and growth performance) are very much the same throughout the world, the requirements for terminal sire lines (selected for food conversion, growth and carcass characteristics) have to cater for the different market demands of different countries.

 

For example, in Japan and Korea, where there is a high consumer preference for intramuscular fat in pork, there is a greater emphasis on the Duroc breed in the selective breeding process.

 

Even within Europe, there are significant differences in requirements for terminal lines, according to Ian Goodbody. In Germany, for example, where consumer preference is for low-cost, lean meat, the Pietrain breed, known for its extremely lean carcass, is preferred.

 

In Italy, however, where pigs are generally grown to a heavier weight (up to 170 kilograms for the production of the famed Parma ham), and a greater covering of fat is preferred, the Duroc is the breed of choice.

 

Putting technology into practice

 

Hermitage Genetics has a current Genomics programme which involves testing several thousand breeding pigs for specific gene markers, focusing on the genomic control of Feed Conversion Ratio and Meat Quality. The result of these markers will read as dominant, carrier or recessive. Pigs expressing the dominant markers will be used in future generations as all the progeny of dominant gene marker parents will benefit from the traits associated with each gene marker.

 

By developing this approach to evaluating their genetic products in combination with accurate individual animal physical phenotype performance testing and BLUP based breeding value estimation, Hermitage believe that this will significantly increase their annual rate of genetic progress with regard to key traits of economic importance affecting both feed conversion efficiency and subsequent carcass quality.

 

Hermitage has a 'DNA Certified' Programme which will allow for the scientific assessment of the origin of progeny of its sires and for pig meat products. This DNA-certified initiative will provide the highest level of traceability for the progeny of Hermitage genetics.

 

Hermitage utilises The Casa system, which was developed by IMV Technologies, to provide an automatic analysis of semen. This system is a pre-programmed analysis system designed to provide optimum semen quality for customers worldwide on a consistent basis.

 

As for reproductive technology advancement, Hermitage conducts research in semen freezing and embryo transfer. The company currently employs embryo transfer technology internally in its nucleus herds. While the technology has the potential to offer producers very significant biosecurity advantage in the transboundary movement of breeding lines, it is still very expensive to apply commercially, and more research needs to be done to bring down the costs.

 

Another important area of research for Hermitage is Genotype Performance Testing and Evaluation. This includes transponder (an electronic device to detect a pig's presence during feeding) performance testing for individual pigs, to allow for the accurate measurement of food conversion to be included in the selection index.

 

The development of market-specific BLUP technologies and indices to meet the demands of different customers and markets is an essential part of the Hermitage development strategy. 

 

Simply speaking, each animal in Hermitage's PigBLUP system is identified with a unique identification number at birth. This number is registered in the Hermitage BLUP system. The programme then examines every record in the Hermitage BLUP database, analysing the performance of the individual animal and all relatives of this animal across all Hermitage herds worldwide. Economically weighted values for each measured trait are then calculated and finally a single breeding value for the selected animal is created. The PigBLUP system also offers the flexibility in complementing a customer's individual requirements.

 

Key markets

 

According to Ian Goodbody, within Europe, Hermitage has significant business volumes in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, Russia and Ukraine, with shipments of breeding stock already started to Romania.

 

"Our biggest development markets in the last five years have been Russia and Ukraine," he adds.

 

"We have our own companies in the UK, Italy and Germany. In Spain we work directly with Vall Company and also with a franchise partner called Gepork, which is supported by our own staff."

 

Vall Company is the largest integration in Europe with over 180,000 sows in their system, slaughtering approximately 80,000 pigs per week. Vall has a 2,500 GGP/GP contracted farm working exclusively with Hermitage Genetics and is under the control of the Hermitage Closed Herd BLUP Programme, which produces parent stock for Vall contracted commercial farms.

 

"In both Russia and the Ukraine, we have local Sales/Technical Managers to sell to and support our customers directly from contracted GGP/GP genetic production centres (a total 5,585 GGP/GP sows), Goodbody says. "These centres produce Hermitage genetics for sale in those countries and again work under the Hermitage Closed Herd BLUP Programme."

 

In the United States, says Goodbody, "we work with Hermitage NGT, a franchise partner that also covers Canada and Mexico."

 

For Asian markets like China, while intellectual property issues remain a concern, Ian Goodbody believes that future growth hinges on finding the right partner.

 

"We forecast substantial expansion of the Hermitage brand in Asia markets and in particular with entry to the Chinese market with the correct partner. Another new market that Hermitage will target is Vietnam. We will build on existing contacts in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia," Ian Goodbody adds.