DanBred clear winner at 9th “Warentest”
At the current production piglet test carried out by the North Rhine Westphalia Agricultural Chamber, DanBred was clearly the number one. In terms of total cost-effectiveness, the DanBred offspring fared much better than the average of the other six breeding tested.
€ 9.58 above the average of six other breeding programmes
DanBred distanced itself from all the competition and was a magnificent winner at the 9th “Warentest” carried out by the North Rhine Westphalia Chamber of Agriculture (Landwirtschaftliches Wochenblatt [agricultural weekly journal], Westphalia-Lippe no. 26 dated 26 June 2008). DanBred was no less than € 9.58 per animal above the average of the other six test candidates – and € 11.25 above the worst result.
Testing procedure
The test is based on gilts from BHZP, DanBred, Hülsenberger, JSR, LRS, PIC and Topigs. DanBred’s pigs were LY gilts (L=Landrace, Y= Yorkshire). The piglets came from piglet producers, who use sows from different nuclues herds.
All finishers have the same Piétrain line as the father. 104 piglets from each nucleus herd were housed individually (50% female, 50% castrated). For half, feeding was carried out ad lib, the other half were fed ad lib up to 70 kg, and rationed accordingly. The testing was carried out during a time where the weight interval was between 30 kg to 121 kg.
Results
DanBred came out best when it comes to daily weight gain during rearing and feed conversion ratio – with 942 g of daily weight gain and 659 g net daily weight gain. Only the distance to the second place was troubled by statistical uncertainty, but nevertheless clearly better than their 906 g/day and 633 g/day. In comparison to the worst result, DanBred pigs needed nine less rearing days. The feed expense per kg of weight gain and per kg of meat was 2.43 and 3.48 thus better than the number two place with 2.51 and 3.59.
The results were closer for the carcass evaluation. DanBred was in the middle – as was also the case for the consistency of the meat. The breeding performance was – after critical examination – evaluated using production data from the delivery herds.
DanBred was at the top with 13.63 live born piglets, with a safe statistical distance of 1.32 from the number two. DanBred was also in second place for piglets born per litter with a distance of 0.94. Due to the different management of the commercial herds, the result for piglets born must be evaluated with reservations.
Clear victory for DanBred
The cost-effectiveness established using production data as a basis made DanBred the overall winner – € 9.58 per animal above the average of the other six test candidates – and € 11.25 above the worst result.
The ”Warentest” summary therefore summed up:
DanBred is the leader in all categories except customer satisfaction, carcass and consistency of meat, where there were nevertheless notable results. DanBred was clearly above the other candidates for the overall score. A clear victory for DanBred.
