Nucleus Management

Now DanBred is offering Nucleus Management - a service enabling you to produce breeding pigs- purebreds and hybrids - in your own herd.

What is Nucleus Management? With Nucleus Management a nucleus herd with purebred GGP and GP animals will be established in your herd. The nucleus consists of Landrace or Large White sows. The nucleus must be 10-15% of the total number of sows in the herd. The Nucleus Management begins with the purchase of purebred gilts from Denmark. Then the best 10-15% of the sows will be used for replacement of the nucleus, and the rest of the animals in the nucleus can produce F1 gilts.

 This allows you to close your herd and you do not have to introduce new animals. You can have your boars in your herd or in an AI station, or you can order boar semen directly from Denmark from DanBred.

Who can have Nucleus Management?

In principle, anybody can have Nucleus Management. The nucleus must be of a certain size in order to make a selection in the nucleus. DanBred recommends a nucleus of at least 40-50 sows - which means a herd of minimum 400 sows in total.

How will new genetics be introduced to my herd?

When a nucleus herd has been established in your herd, genetics from Denmark will only be introduced through boars. You have several options: You can buy boars and replace the boars several times a year in order to take advantage of the genetic progress. Often there is also the possibility to have the boars stabled at a local AI station. Then it is not necessary to introduce new animals to your herd.

How is my nucleus herd controlled?

To maintain a high index level in your herd, all litters, mating, cullings etc. must be registered and sent regularly by email to the DanBred Databank. For these registrations the Agrosoft programme is used. Agrosoft is a Danish developed sow planner that can transfer data. If you use another sow planner, the data from your sow planner will be converted in order to be used in the Agrosoft programme.

With the index calculation and your own experience as to which sows are adapted most successfully to your production you have the best possibilities to select the animals to use for breeding. This way you can have the best results for you and your herd.

How about the health?

When you introduce new animals to your herd there will always be a risk of bringing in diseases. Furthermore, the animals will be disturbed which may lead to stress and diseases. With Nucleus Management it is possible to close your herd.

Is Nucleus Management profitable?

With Nucleus Management you will not only achieve advantages in terms of health with a closed system but also optimal breeding progress because the nucleus is continuously upgraded with Danish genetics. The financial gain per slaughter pig is more than Euro 1.00 per animal per year.