PHOTO: VINCENT TER BEEK
PHOTO: PIC
PHOTO: PIC
FARM VISIT ▶▶▶
Crossing borders for genetic cooperation
Denmark’s breeding system has been going through a substantial change in recent years. One of the country’s nucleuses, Møllevang, decided to team up with genetics company PIC, offering its owner Niels Pedersen entirely new markets.
Profile
Name: Niels Pedersen Job title: Owner Farm: Møllevang (Danish for ‘mill yard’) is a swine farm consist- ing of a 1,250 sow nucleus herd and a 1,250 sow multiplication unit, both near Holsted, Jutland, Denmark. The farm was found- ed in 2000 and gradually expanded to the current size. In total 35 people from three different nationalities work at Møllevang. While weaning 33–35 pigs with the dam lines (L04 and L05), the two farms annually produce more than 30,000 purebred dam line (L04 and L05) and F1 gilts (crossbred gilt of L04 x L05) in ad- dition to the PIC800 (Duroc) boars. Usually these are maiden gilts and AI boars; however, producers might ask for different age groups. In the last 12 months shipments were made to 17 differ- ent countries, including to Russia and countries within North and Latin America. The farm vaccinates for typical endemic organisms.
“T BY VINCENT TER BEEK, EDITOR, PIG PROGRESS
hey always call me Mr Fortunate,” says Niels Pedersen with a big smile. “Everybody says it – and I believe it too, that I’m blessed with great employees, most of whom have
been working with me for years. That means that I don’t have to explain a lot to them about the importance of biosecurity, for instance; they understand, and any newcomer will also quickly adjust to the working culture.” Pedersen is the owner of Møllevang, a proud two-site Dan- ish nucleus herd with 1,250 sows and a multiplication site with another 1,250 sows near the town of Holsted in Jut- land, having pure line Landrace, Yorkshire and Duroc ani- mals. Everything is top-notch here – it is the top of the breeding pyramid in specific-pathogen-free production conditions. Pedersen, originally from a dairy background, started his career in the pig business as a multiplier farm in 2000. He gradually grew towards becoming a nucleus as he actually enjoyed the paperwork and analysis in addition to the tech- nical stuff in the barn. “Improving pig quality is what I find tremendously interesting; that kept me going.” Despite all that, a few years ago Pedersen needed some good fortune as he found himself back in a situation that wasn’t optimal for him and especially not good for the genetic im- provement of the breeding herd at Møllevang.
The Danish pig industry To understand that situation it’s good to zoom out a little. Until a few years ago, seen from the perspective of foreign genetics companies, Denmark was a mighty and fairly closed fortress. In a cooperative structure, over 25 Danish nucleuses – Møllevang being one – together formed the well-protect- ed Danish genetics base. Over the years, however, Pedersen came to realise that the cooperative structure was not how he liked to face the future. To cut a long story short: He left the cooperative in the middle of 2017, with effect of July 2, 2018. No longer being part of the Danish pig cooperative meant that a great deal of domestic support fell away. Yet in- come had to be guaranteed and the genetic progress could not come to a standstill. The big question was how to go from there.
20 ▶PIG PROGRESS | Volume 36, No. 2, 2020
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
