America’s Best Genetics – Animal Farming Ukraine

The National Swine Registry just completed a trade mission to the Animal Farming Ukraine show in Kiev. With respect to other countries, Ukraine is not a large swine producer, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of investment in new technology for the Ukrainian swine industry, particularly in genetics. Because of this, the National Swine Registry and its exporting members have focused on creating market share within the genetics market. Unfortunately, at this time there is not an established protocol for live swine between the U.S. and Ukraine; however, close to 3,000 doses of frozen semen have been purchased from Swine Genetics International and shipped to Ukraine in the last few years.

 

During the show, officials from the U.S. Embassy in Kiev stopped by to discuss the current constraints on live animal exports to Ukraine. Overall the meeting was promising and hopefully there will be movement towards a resolution in the near future. The FAS staff in Kiev has been very helpful in the establishment of the semen protocol and progress towards a live animal protocol. If a protocol is established, there are some great opportunities for U.S. purebred genetics in Ukraine.

Pictured (l to r): Dr. Justin Fix, V.P. of Global Technical Service, National Swine Registry; Mr. Tony Clayton, President, Clayton Agri-Marketing, Inc.; Mr. Randall Hager, Attaché, Foreign Agricultural Service; Mr. Vladimir Getman, Director, Promagro; Mr. Alexander Tarassevych, Agricultural Specialist, Foreign Agricultural Service.

Visit to Shandong Whiteshire

This past week I had the opportunity to visit Shandong Whiteshire, a joint venture partner of Whiteshire Hamroc, LLC. The farm is located near the town of Wudi, in the Northwest part of the Shandong province and is about a 3.5 hour trip by car from Beijing.


Picture with Dr. Mike Lemmon outside of the AirWorks™ wean-to-finish barn at Shandong Whiteshire.

In January of this year the farm was stocked 1,034 head of U.S. purebred breeding stock from Whiteshire via a shipment coordinated by Clayton Agri-Marketing.



Crates of Whiteshire breeding stock waiting to be loaded onto the airplane.

Crates of Whiteshire breeding stock being loaded onto the airplane bound for China.

After going through the process of the on-farm quarantine procedures that are in place for newly built farms, they began matings in April. The first litter was farrowed July 18, 2012.


First litter of purebred Yorkshire GGP pigs farrowed at Shandong Whiteshire.

As an international member of the National Swine Registry and an America's Best Genetics farm located in China, the Shandong Whiteshire farm is a full participant in the STAGES™ global genetic evaluation. As a user of STAGES™, Shandong Whiteshire has access to one of the world's largest global purebred databases and years of research and technology. During my visit, I had the opportunity to present the staff of Shandong Whiteshire with a plaque that commemorates the first litter recorded with the National Swine Registry by the partnership's second GGP Herd - Rongchang Whiteshire.


Pictured (l to r): Mr. Ma, Salesman, Shandong Whiteshire; Joyce, President, Shandong Whiteshire; Dr. Justin Fix, V.P. of Global Technical Service, National Swine Registry; Dixie, Farm Manager, Shandong Whiteshire; Mr. Zhou, Director of Sales, Shandong Whiteshire.

NSR Philippines Trade Mission

Pictured (l-r): Perfecto Corpuz, Pia Ang and Bill Verzani, all from the USDA/FAS Manila office, Justin Fix of the National Swine Registry and Tony Clayton of Clayton Agri-Marketing, Inc.

The National Swine Registry recently completed a Philippines trade mission, participating in the 21^st Hog Convention and Trade Exhibit in Cebu City, Philippines, with an America's Best Genetics (ABG) booth. During the show, members of the USDA/FAS Manila office traveled to Cebu City to participate in several of the event’s activities. The group stopped by the ABG booth to visit with Dr. Justin Fix about the Philippines market (group pictured above). Thanks to all who stopped by the ABG booth!

Just prior to travelling to Cebu City for the tradeshow, Mr. Tony Clayton of Clayton Agri-Marketing, Inc., Mr. Bobby Badilla, Carmel Import/Export Corporation, and Dr. Justin Fix traveled to Cavite Pig City, located in General Trias, Philippines. During the visit, the trade team viewed some of the first litters farrowed as part of the Genetic Service Partnership between U.S. purebred breeders, the National Swine Registry and Cavite Pig City. Read more about this genetic partnership and consulting agreement here. Litter 7 (pictured below) was farrowed on March 26^th with 13 born alive with 12 pigs weaned.

Litter 7 was farrowed by a gilt purchased from Waldo Farms, WFDM1 30-11 Ms Starburst, and sired by a boar purchased from Cedar Ridge Farms, 1CR1 Pikkus 722-5.