Hermitage PigBLUP for Commercial Units

Hermitage offer producers two BLUP Programmes for commercial units:

1. Hermitage Purebred BLUP Programme (PBBP).

Under this programme, the customer would maintain approximately 10% of the commercial herd as a purebred nucleus.  These purebred animals would be registered with the Hermitage PigBLUP Exchange™ and all replacements for the herd (both purebred and hybrid replacements) would be produced from this within herd nucleus.

2. Hermitage Rotational Cross BLUP Programme (RCBP).

Under this programme the customer would not be required to establish a purebred nucleus within the herd, however, all females in the breeding herd would be registered with the Hermitage PigBLUP Exchange and the top 10% would be used to produce the replacements for the herd.
Under both programmes, the Hermitage technical team would setup and run the BLUP Programme for the herd, generating the breeding values and ensuring that the best sows in the herd are selected based on their own performance and the performance of all their relatives in all Hermitage herds worldwide which are registered with the Hermitage PigBLUP Exchange™. A list is then produced which ranks the sows in the herd according to their ‘Breeding Values’ and also a mate selection matrix is produced which identifies the best AI boar to cross with each ‘GGP/GP’ sow in the herd to maximize the rate of genetic progress per generation and to eliminate any inbreeding.

Producers using the Hermitage Closed Herd BLUP Programmes significantly reduce their genetic cost per F1 parent gilt produced, saving over €50 per gilt selected when compared to traditional purchasing of replacement females. An increasing number of producers who restocked their herds and are using the Hermitage Closed Herd BLUP Programmes are producing over 30 pigs per sow per year.
 

• Optimize your herds performance.
• Direct link to Hermitages PigBLUP Exchange™.
• Maximize your herd bio-security.
• Produce uniform, high performing herd replacements.
• Technical support provided by the Hermitage genetic and production teams.
• Maximize genetic potential of Hybrid gilts.
• Significantly increase the accuracy of selection each generation.