Genetics Helps the World Produce More with Less

Careful and long-term genomic selection is the key to improvements of productivity. For a global pig production moving in a sustainable direction, the DanBred breeding program offers the solutions to produce more with less.

The key to a global pig breeding program lies in combining the global pork market trends, customer demands, and international genetic expertise and tools. DanBred carries out DNA testing on 100 percent of all breeding pigs and uses the results for genomic selection. In rough figures, this results in 30 percent more genetic gain than not DNA testing the breeding pigs. And this gain is due to selecting the right breeding candidates.

Hungarian Bonafarm Group has benefited from DanBred’s collaboration and genetically well-founded breeding program. Bonafarm Group is one of the biggest agricultural businesses in Central Europe. And with 670,000 pigs produced annually, the pig breeding integration is a vital part of Bonafarm Agriculture.

Bonafarm Group has seen a great increase in the feed efficiency

While already working with DanBred since 2015, Bonafarm Agriculture decided to switch to a new dam line, because the slaughterhouse prefers that you use only one type of genetics. In order for the finisher pigs to always live up to the same high standards, they had to choose one type of genetics. And DanBred turned out to be best choice for both pig production and finisher pigs!

Knowledge sharing to expand motivation and results

Bonafarm Group is open about their results and share all of their pure line results. Through a GenePro agreement, they have access to the DanBred data bank, where they can follow the genetic progress of the herd. This way, they can track development and compare results to other herds ¬– a strong motivation for continued development throughout their plants.

Colleagues are encouraged to participate in many of DanBred’s webinars to gain valuable insights this way, and the group is continuously in touch with experts from DanBred to get support and share their latest initiatives.

Improvements month by month

Bonafarm Group has seen a great increase in the feed efficiency, month by month, and with daily gains going up, they can produce a higher number of piglets with less resources than before.

While productivity has improved immensely, they can handle the larger number of piglets as the DanBred sows can wean more piglets than they have teats for.