DanBred Duroc grows with lowest feed conversion

Descendants of the DanBred Duroc have recently confirmed its genetic potential in a French field study. The DanBred Durocs excelled in the research in achieving the highest growth, achieving the sharpest feed conversion and a good percentage of intramuscular fat.

The results of the comparative French study make it clear that with DanBred genetics, fattening pig farmers can achieve the best performance in terms of technical-economic production results, while at the same time realizing a tasteful end product. A total picture in which returns and a tasty piece of pork go hand in hand.

Comparative study with Piétrain terminal bear
The study compared the performance of several terminal boars with Duroc blood - from three genetics suppliers including DanBred - with offspring from a Piétrain terminal boar. A large number of performance indicators were included in the study: economically relevant indicators such as growth and feed conversion, but also taste indicators such as intramuscular fat and drip loss.

In terms of technical-economic factors, the DanBred Duroc was by far the best performing terminal bear. These offspring outperformed competing lines on both growth and feed conversion. The DanBred Duroc finishers achieved a growth of 971 grams per day during the fattening period. That was significantly higher than the other Duroc and Piétrain terminal boars that achieved between 895 and 907 grams of growth per day.

The results regarding feed conversion are also clear. Of the animals studied, offspring of the DanBred Duroc achieved the sharpest feed conversions. In the study, the DanBred Duroc required between 0,13 kg and 0,16 kg less feed per kg of growth than the other Duroc terminal boars. Compared to the Piétrain terminal boar, the DanBred Duroc used 0,07 kilograms of feed per kilogram of growth less. With a growth trajectory of 100 kilos in the fattening pen, fattening pig farmers save with DanBred Durocs between 7 and 16 kilos of feed per pig delivered. At the current feed prices an economic advantage of several euros per pig.

Because each Duroc line has been compared with a Piétrain line, figures are known for three groups of Piétrain animals. For each prefix, the best overall result for the Piétrain line is included in the table below.

DanBred Bear Station Results Confirmation
The field study was conducted under the supervision of IFIP, the French national and independent research institute for pig farming. The results confirm the figures achieved at DanBred's own core breeding farms in Denmark, where genetic progress is the first to be measured. The technical results of the core breeding companies also show that genetic progress has been extremely rapid in recent years.

The breeding goals focused heavily on improving feed efficiency and increasing growth. This pays off on a daily basis in the return on fattening pig farms, especially with the current high feed prices. An overview of the progress made at the Ki bear test station Bøgildgård shows that the already very high growth rates have increased even further and that the feed efficiency has been greatly improved.

CLASS partner DanBred: the only pureline Danish genetics
CLASS customers worldwide benefit directly from the genetic advances that DanBred realizes. CLASS Ki supplies top breeding companies all over the world. DanBred therefore stores the best available boars in the Ki-station in Son en Rosmalen, North Brabant. Dutch and Belgian buyers thus benefit directly from the realized genetic progress, as can be seen in the table above.

Stefan Derks, director of KLASSE: "Although many companies offer 'Danish' genetics, these are often suppliers who at some point in history have decided to go further on their own. KLASSE is the only party in the Netherlands that supplies pure DanBred genetics with which the fastest genetic progress will also be made in the future. We see that CLASS can also deliver the fastest genetic progress to customers. we see our market share growing strongly again in a shrinking market."