JSR enters pig breeding joint venture in China

UK-based international pig breeding company JSR Genetics has agreed a joint venture to build and stock a state-of-the-art Nucleus on a Greenfield site in China.

The 900 sow Nucleus will be located in Hubei province and is expected to be completed by December 2010. The deal, which includes the shipment of both dam lines and sire lines to the Hubei province, reinforces JSR's commitment to investing in Nucleus facilities within their target markets.

The signing ceremony between JSR (China) Limited - a wholly owned subsidiary of JSR Genetics UK - and Hubei Liangyou Livestock and Poultry Company Limited took place on April 1, 2010.

To be known as Hubei Liangyou JSR Breeding Limited, the company will import 700 JSR Genepacker Large White and JSR Genepacker Landrace dams and 250 JSR Geneconverter 500 and JSR Geneconverter 600 sires. The herd will be situated in the Xiangyang District of the Hubei Province and distribution rights will allow JSR breeding stock and semen to be sold throughout the Hubei, Hunan, Henan, Jiangxi and Anhui regions.

According to the company, delivery of the animals in December 2010 is being taken to produce the first purebred JSR breeding stock by the end of 2011. There are up to 15 million sows within the sales territory and the company believes the impact of JSR genetics in terms of improving productivity within the region will be dramatic.

Current average productivity is less than 16 pigs per sow per year, this is compared to the JSR average commercial production performance of over 25 pigs per sow sold per year, the company said.

Meanwhile, JSR will be supplying a full time Farm Manager to support the new nucleus herd along with the bespoke genetic database software 'JSR Select'.