E-BARN SOLUTIONS

Have you ever tried to set up a terminal sire trial to test the best fitting genetics for your farm and market objectives? This is not easy at all. In fact I should say it was not easy untill recently to find a trial setup that could work. And most farmers relied on public trial information or information provided by their genetic suppliers. Not a very satisfactory way to deal with such 50% of the genes in your finishing pigs in cases where small deviations can make differences of 30-50 Euro per sow per year. In practice one is reluctant to switch genetics and relies on unreliable sources of information. One can miss opportunities quite easily. It is difficult to produce a steady high quality of pigs towards the future and make sure that the best fitting genetics is used when becoming available in the market.

Most large integrators experienced the difficulties to test genetics on farm and put up research farms to test genetics. But like a lots of production experts of large sow operations told me, a small scale trial really never gives the the same result as in normal larger scale farming practice. New technologies make it possible to apply new concepts. Through DNA tracking and tracing it becomes possible to make powerfull tests that are at the same time more practical than former trials. In fact it allows you to place a genetic test in your normal farms and only put your efforts in additional traits you want to measure. DNA can be used to pedigree your pigs and in retrospect assign pigs to their terminal sire origin.

Combined with a strong concept trials require less animals and less labour for the same power or significance rate. It gives you a clear comparison of your current genetics and new genetics. All animals in the experiment get treated equally. A perfect representative farm environment is used for testing the different sources of genetics. And through this the outcome is reliable and repeatable. It provides you a perfect base for your decisions to improve product quality or farm economics.