(l to r) Dr. Tom Baas, Ukrainian host, Dr. Clint Schwab, Dr. Harold Hodson

This is the second of a four-part series. Read Dr. Schwab’s description of the visit in Part I.

Part 1, Dr. Clint Schwab visits Ukraine

Dr. Clint Schwab, director of genetic and technical services for the National Swine Registry, visited Ukraine in July 2010 to both present information to swine producers in this country, as well as learn about their systems. Accompanying him were Dr. Tom Baas of Iowa State University, and Dr. Harold Hodson from Swine Genetics International, Iowa. Following are Schwab’s second set of photos and descriptions of this tour.



An F1 sow pre-farrow, and another illustration of the typical farrowing system in Ukraine.



This picture was taken just inside the front gate of a larger nucleus farm that operates 1,100 sows and finishes all progeny. This was the largest unit we visited; it began using U.S. genetics about six months prior. The company, APK Agro Industrial Company, is located in the Zapopizhja region and operates 13 different breeding farms. This farm has 92 employees … interestingly, they didn’t complain about the cost of production.



An illustration of how they take care of the appearance around the farm. In between each building, it was landscaped like this picture.



This is a boar exercise unit. Similar to that used for exercising horses in the U.S., boars are driven out of the boar stud each day and put into this carousel for a period of time.



Interior of the boar stud facility.



The next several pictures are from a seminar conducted in Dnepropetrovsk where Baas, Hodson, and I presented topics related to US industry structure, components of effective genetic improvement programs, and how to use frozen semen.

View photos and information from additional Ukraine swine farms in upcoming blog posts.