The Rural Voice, 2006-06, Page 20Building. on success
Genetic improvements in Canada's swine herd
continue their amazing pace, building on the past
to ensure a profitable future
Story and photo by Keith Roulston
While many pork farmers
have been preoccupied
with problems like Porcine
Reproductive and Respiratory
Syndrome (PRRS) and Porcine
Circovirus lately, there's been a good
story in the pork industry. Genetic
improvement continues at an
astonishing rate.
Given Canada's position as one of
the world's major exporters of pork
as well as breeding stock and semen,
it's essential that Canadian breeders
be on the leading edge. And they are,
say Dave Vandenbroek, field services
manager and Marlow Gingerich,
manager of Genetics with Ontario
Swine Improvement Inc.
Breeders all across Canada have
been racking up big genetic
improvements, says Vandenbroek.
16 THE RURAL VOICE
Genetic improvements from 2004
to 2005 have put an additional $44
per sow into the pockets of an
average commercial producer. If you
look at the results over a longer
number of the years the practical
application of genetics goes much
higher.
On Yorkshire lines, there has been
a .31 increase in the number of pigs
born per litter in the past year alone,
among the 7143 pigs recorded in
herds tested through Canadian
Centre for Swine Improvement in
2005, and increase of 13.9 per cent.
For Landrace, the improvement was
.17 pigs per litter, of 13.5 per cent
among the 5675 pigs recorded.
Among sire lines, there was a 16.9
per cent improvement in one year
among 2685 pigs tested, the big gain
Dave Vandenbroek, (left) field
services manager and Marlow
Gingerich, manager of genetics
help direct the genetiic
improvements at Ontario Swine
Improvement Inc.
being two days Tess to reach 100
kgs.; a backfat decrease of .4 mms
arid an increase in loin depth of .77
mm.
Participation in genetic testing
through Canadian Centre for Swine
Improvement was up in 2005, the
first time in several years, says
Vandenbroek. Some of that decline
may have been due to the higher
costs that were passed on to
producers with the government
cancelling support for genetic
improvement programs like OSI. The
current increase may indicate an
increased empahsis on efforts to
measure and improve the genetics of
herds, he says.
There can be many factors for the
genetic improvement, according to
Vandenbroek. It could be that
breeders are doing a better job of
using the tools available to through
CCSI to do boar selection.
"The boars that we have available
in the AI are better so that when they