Chen Yaosheng, chief scientist of the national pig industry technology system, proposed at the 18th (2021) China Pig Industry Development Conference held recently that with the introduction of a large number of domestic pig enterprises from overseas in the past year or so, China has now concentrated the world's main excellent breeding pig resources, and how to establish a long-term sustained and stable improvement of the breeding industry system in the next step will be a problem that the industry needs to think about together now.
He believes that although a large number of head enterprises are accelerating the layout of pig breeding, and the concept of "seed industry first" is more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, the development of the seed industry is not a process of "full flowering", because the high investment and low return of breeding will restrict the enthusiasm of enterprise breeding, making it difficult to adhere to breeding work for a long time. Especially in China, the main source of income for breeding maintenance of breeding pig enterprises is binary sows, and the sales of high-end core groups of purebred males and sows are small, and it is difficult to have high quality and good prices, and lack of effective support for high investment in breeding.
At the same time, at this stage, affected by the African swine fever epidemic, both large groups and small and medium-sized farmers have begun to breed in closed groups to minimize the transfer of gilts and control biosecurity risks. This has correspondingly reduced the need for third-party breeding. "Just as you don't want to do what you don't want, don't do it to others." Chen Yaosheng said.
The annual breeding pig registration data of the national core breeding farm also shows that both the number of registrations and the production performance have been polarized in the past decade, and the performance of the top 30% core products has not only not been greatly affected by the epidemic, but has improved and is close to the international advanced level. On the other hand, products at the end of performance can no longer meet the minimum requirements for breeding. At this point, we need to think about how to amplify the effect of excellent breeding pigs as much as possible.
"I think polarization is also right, really do a good job of breeding does not need a large area of you to do me do everyone to do, but should be the industry's high-end or even elite pig farms to do things." 」 Chen Yaosheng pointed out that the high investment in breeding pigs and the inclusiveness of its value determine that this work also needs the support of government resources.
Focus on boar value
Chen Yaosheng believes that under the influence of non-plague, in the future, not only will the live fat pigs be prohibited from long-distance trafficking, but the renewal of breeding pigs will also greatly reduce this transportation, so that the genetic improvement of the breeding system of breeding pigs will basically rely on the high-intensity selection of the father, and the value of the breeding boar station will be greatly improved.
The core of the breeding boar is to achieve "one in a hundred" and make its value reflected in the entire "pyramid" production system. However, at present, the price of excellent breeding boars measured by high intensity in China is only about 10,000 yuan, and the utilization rate of its own core group breeding is less than 10%, and the excellent resources cannot be fully utilized, which greatly reduces its value realization ability.
"So most of the work you pick out of a hundred must be contributed to your downstream and to society, and this is one thing we should do." Chen Yaosheng said, "If there is a condition to promote it through first-class socialized independent boar stations, excellent breeding boars can fully achieve direct economic value of more than 100,000 yuan." But what is the social value it brings? Far more than 100,000, it may be a million or even higher. ”
However, in the past, due to the concerns about their respective interests and diseases, the core breeding farms lacked the sharing of breeding resources and technologies, formed data islands inside and outside the enterprise and the upstream and downstream of the industry, and lacked the power to apply new technologies; the quantity, quality, sustainability and utilization rate of the basic breeding data were also lacking, the amount of evaluation information of excellent breeding pigs was limited, and the accuracy of breeding selection was difficult to guarantee. In the future, it is necessary to make up for the shortcomings of gene and data resource sharing through innovative joint breeding.
Innovative joint breeding
Chen Yaosheng pointed out that the joint breeding of breeding pigs is not simply a few enterprises through the exchange of breeding pig genetic resources to establish genetic links, but through the establishment of an excellent breeding boar resource sharing system, inclusive driving the breeding system downstream of the large, medium and small pig breeding groups, and gradually realize the role transformation from "customer" to "cooperation" to "shareholder".
"For example, I am a small and medium-sized farmer, and I have no breeding ability at all, but can I participate in the upstream?" Even if I only have one percent or even one thousandth of the equity, I can turn the simple technical or resource alliance of the past into a substantial union. He said that scientific research institutions, including the national pig industry technology system, can work closely together to transform the advantages of scientific and technological resources into the advantages of the seed industry.
Through the integration and sharing of this "pyramid" vertical resource, the breeding information of the core group of the "spire" can be truly realized from the ultimate service object of breeding, which greatly improves the accuracy and pertinence of breeding. At the same time, the value of high-intensity breeding of the core group is realized by a huge production system, so as to support the operation of the high-input breeding system.
Chen Yaosheng stressed that whether it is internal breeding or group joint breeding, a concept that must be established is that breeding is no longer limited to the core group, but based on terminal consumption, integrating the big data support of the full breeding system, including the ability to achieve individual tracking of each fat pig. While opening up the data, it is also necessary to promote the breeding of high-intensity boars, and the whole herd determination retention rate can be reduced to 1-3%, which is necessary for purebred binary sows and backcrossed binary sows.
However, he also reminded that the boar station operates an intermediate product, and it is necessary to balance supply and demand, both to avoid large amounts of waste and to ensure downstream supply. To this end, he is mobilizing some boar stations to establish a sharing alliance in case the surplus can be adjusted between different subjects and different regions in the future. "I believe that the core of the seed industry is win-win cooperation." Chen Yaosheng concluded.