The increasing professional structure of pig production in China and South America is creating an expanding international market for pig genetics, comments Dr. Bjarne Holm, chief operating officer of the Norwegian-based Norsvin Group.
Pig production in China, South America
“China has been a big producer of pork for a long time, of course, but until recently a lot of that has involved what might best be termed ‘back-door’ production,” says Dr. Holm. “What we’re seeing now, however, is an increasingly professional approach to pig production in China, a change which is leading to an expanding market for pig genetics. The industry in South American is also becoming more professional with a similar impact of the demand for genetic inputs. These changes are taking place at a time when Europe and North America are both experiencing a more static market situation in which it’s hard to see much production growth being achieved in the near future.”
“The pig industry in China and South America is currently going through a similar development process to what happened in Europe and North America in the past,” says Dr. Holm. “The difference with China and South America, of course, is that while we took several years to work through our development process, mistakes and all, they’re able to move much more rapidly; maybe even skipping a few steps along the way.
“If you look at China today, large sums of money are being invested in pork production,” says Dr. Holm. “They’re determined to get their production structure as perfect as possible as soon as possible. This is being achieved by bringing in knowledge and expertise from Europe and the US to help them manage their progress towards a more industrialized state.”
Pig production in Brazil, Russia
“There’s also huge growth potential for the industry in South America, particularly Brazil,” says Dr. Holm. “Once they’ve improved their basic infrastructure, I see Brazil becoming a big exporter of pork. There’s also real development potential in Russia, who definitely have the scope to become self-sufficient in meat, including pork. They’re also moving towards increased industrialization.”
The global pig market is changing rapidly with production moving away from individual producers and towards large-scale, integrated production systems, he commented.
Rapid genetic progress across all species
Asked how he thought such a process was impacting on the genetic development of pig production, Dr. Holm highlighted the current potential for further stock improvements.
“Being based in Norway, we’re constantly aware of the genetic progress made by our farm salmon industry,” says Dr. Holm. “In the early days of that business, companies were using two kilograms of feed to produce one kilogram of saleable salmon. Today, the ratio is 1:1.”
“It’s a similar story with chicken, which is why we have a pig sector saying in Norway that we have to ‘chase the chicken’ if we’re going to be successful long-term in the global production of pork. I certainly believe we can do it,” he said.
Pig genetics and feed efficiency
In terms of feed efficiency, for example, Dr. Holm says there’s already plenty of scope for pork producers to improve their performance. “European pig sector feed efficiency is current averaging 2.8 or 2.85,” he said. “In Norway, the industry is better than that, hitting an average of around 2.65. This illustrates the level of potential already available.” Feed efficiency has been a key focus of breeding activities for many years, driven by the fact that feed costs in countries like Norway have always been two to three times higher than the equivalent prices in Europe and the United States.
“Feed accounts for around 80 percent of the cost of producing pigs,” says Dr. Holm. “Whatever we can do to reduce this percentage has to be valuable, especially against the global trend of rising energy costs. We’re already seeing how sensitive the feed market is to drought in the United States or a bad year in Ukraine, or anywhere else where they produce a lot of grain. In that context, the more feed efficient we can make our pigs, the less vulnerable we will be to future shifts in feed costs.”
Pig genetics equal profitability
Asked to name his top genetic trait, however, he immediately moved onto the bigger picture. “My top trait is profitability,” says Dr. Holm. “By that, I mean that while the genetics sector can deliver progress on feed efficiency, improved growth rates, and lean meat potential, unless these individual factors enable pig farmers to achieve lasting profitability they won’t work at a commercial level.
“You have to be competitive to stay in business as a producer and that involves many different factors. Feed efficiency, growth rates, and lean meat content are all important, of course, but so are a whole host of robustness qualities such as disease resistance, product consistency and low mortalities,” he said.
“We scan 3,500 boars a year, working through up to 70 a week to indentify pig families and individual animals with the highest profit potential. Some traits, properly applied, can deliver performance improvements of 20 percent to 30 percent in a very short development time.
“We also place high emphasis on female stock because market pigs are influenced 50 percent by the boar and 50 percent be the dam and we treat the parent stock accordingly,” says Dr. Holm.
That means assessing female lines across three general areas: reproduction and maternal ability; meat quality and robustness. Sows are analyzed according to the total number of piglets born live, total stillborn, subsequent piglet mortalities, litter weight at 21 days, development of shoulder ulcers and body condition at weaning.
Achieving 30+ pigs per sow
“Ultimately, to achieve sustainable profitability, producers need boars with top-level genetic traits in terms of feed efficiency and growth rates and sows which can rear 30+ pigs per year, delivering a consistent, uniform end product,” says Dr. Holm. “That’s where pig production units in China and South America are heading for and that’s where the global market will need to be focused in the future.”
