The NSR Office will be closed November 28-29th for Thanksgiving. The Texas and Arizona litter recording deadline is December 1st. Please plan accordingly.
The National Swine Registry just completed a trade mission to the Animal Farming Ukraine show in Kiev. With respect to other countries, Ukraine is not a large swine producer, but in recent years there has been a fair amount of investment in new technology for the Ukrainian swine industry, particularly in genetics. Because of this, the National Swine Registry and its exporting members have focused on creating market share within the genetics market. Unfortunately, at this time there is not an established protocol for live swine between the U.S. and Ukraine; however, close to 3,000 doses of frozen semen have been purchased from Swine Genetics International and shipped to Ukraine in the last few years.
During the show, officials from the U.S. Embassy in Kiev stopped by to discuss the current constraints on live animal exports to Ukraine. Overall the meeting was promising and hopefully there will be movement towards [ … ]
This past week I had the opportunity to visit Shandong Whiteshire, a joint venture partner of Whiteshire Hamroc, LLC. The farm is located near the town of Wudi, in the Northwest part of the Shandong province and is about a 3.5 hour trip by car from Beijing.
Picture with Dr. Mike Lemmon outside of the AirWorks™ wean-to-finish barn at Shandong Whiteshire.
In January of this year the farm was stocked 1,034 head of U.S. purebred breeding stock from Whiteshire via a shipment coordinated by Clayton Agri-Marketing.
Crates of Whiteshire breeding stock waiting to be loaded onto the airplane.
Crates of Whiteshire breeding stock being loaded onto the airplane bound for China.
After going through the process of the on-farm quarantine procedures that are in place for newly built farms, they began matings in April. The first litter was farrowed July 18, 2012.
First litter of purebred Yorkshire GGP pigs farrowed at Shandong Whiteshire.
As an international member [ … ]
Recently, Justin Fix, Ph.D., Vice President of Global Technical Service for the National Swine Registry, attended the joint venture signing ceremony between Whiteshire Hamroc LLC and Tangrenshen Co. Ltd. The ceremony was held to celebrate the next step in the partnership between these two companies – the construction of an international genetic research and development facility in Northeast Indiana. Whiteshire Hamroc LLC, a genetics company located in Albany, Ind., has been a long-time member of NSR and utilizes STAGES™ for their genetic program. Tangrenshen Co. Ltd. is the operating partner behind Meishan Whitshire – the first Chinese-based joint venture to record U.S. derived pigs born in China with NSR.
The new research and genetic facility will participate in the STAGES™ genetic evaluation system and will quickly become one of the premier purebred herds in the world. In addition to the research, training will be provided for both domestic and international [ … ]
Pictured (l-r): Perfecto Corpuz, Pia Ang and Bill Verzani, all from the USDA/FAS Manila office, Justin Fix of the National Swine Registry and Tony Clayton of Clayton Agri-Marketing, Inc.
The National Swine Registry recently completed a Philippines trade mission, participating in the 21stHog Convention and Trade Exhibit in Cebu City, Philippines, with an America’s Best Genetics (ABG) booth. During the show, members of the USDA/FAS Manila office traveled to Cebu City to participate in several of the event’s activities. The group stopped by the ABG booth to visit with Dr. Justin Fix about the Philippines market (group pictured above). Thanks to all who stopped by the ABG booth!
Just prior to travelling to Cebu City for the tradeshow, Mr. Tony Clayton of Clayton Agri-Marketing, Inc., Mr. Bobby Badilla, Carmel Import/Export Corporation, and Dr. Justin Fix traveled to Cavite Pig City, located in General Trias, Philippines. During the visit, the trade team viewed [ … ]
This past week, NSR hosted a group of visitors from China at the office in West Lafayette, Ind. The group, accompanied by Professor Wang of China Agricultural University, included buyers from three different Chinese companies. Throughout the visit, the buyers were escorted by George Bruns and Chuck Bastrom of Ag-World Inc., and Nicholas Zhang of China Animal Husbandry Group.
L to R: Professor Wang, Dr. Clint Schwab, & George Bruns
NSR CEO, Dr. Clint Schwab, and Director of Genetic and Technical Services at NSR, Dr. Justin Fix, hosted the meeting, which centered on the Swine Genetic and Testing Evaluation System (STAGES™). STAGES™ is a program developed by the National Swine Registry to facilitate genetic improvement through calculation of the most economically significant traits in purebred swine production. The international breeders, all customers of U.S. purebred genetics, were interested in the intricacies and daily functions of the genetic program. To learn more about STAGES™, click [ … ]
