By Bruce Cochrane.
PIC's Global Gene Transfer Centre's Quality Assurance Manager says, by making more efficient use of artificial insemination, North American pork producers can increase the level of access to superior swine genetics.
"How to Make Better Use of Superior Genetics" was discussed earlier this month as part of the 2017 Manitoba Swine Seminar in Winnipeg.
Dr. Hanneke Feitsma, PIC's Global Gene Transfer Centre's Quality Assurance Manager, says, by reducing waste, producers can increase access to higher index boars.
Dr. Hanneke Feitsma-PIC:
That is employing skilled people, train them properly.
Heat detection is key.
Proper heat detection and time of insemination is key as well.
A lot of inadequacies in the breeding management are masked by either more cells in a dose or more does per cycle.
The thing the industry should pick up, I think, is investing in good transport.
I think a lot of damage is done during transport.
Semen is vulnerable, membranes damage and then the storage in the farm, I think there's a lot of opportunity to improve that.
Typically a dose would be useable three to four days and, when you are able to sustain the viability, of the semen longer, there's less waste.
I still think a lot of farms actually use semen when it's older but it will decrease their results, so in fact they ineffectively use the genetic potential that is available.
By getting all these little things and factors and details right, you need less semen.
At this point, in Europe typically they use five doses per sow per year where as here it's about eight or nine doses.
It's a lot more.
Dr. Feitsma says new developments in technology are great but we can gain a lot of opportunities by just doing the basics well.
Source: Farmscape