50 world-class breeding boars auctioned off

More than 50 breeding boars were auctioned last month at the 22nd Boar Auction Sale held at the International Training Center on Pig Husbandry (ITCPH) Compound, Lipa City, Batangas.

The boars that were auctioned were subjected to a performance-testing program through the funding of the Philippine Swine Industry Research and Development Foundation, Inc. (PSIRDFI). The project is regularly conducted to ensure credible and reliable assessment of local boars.

Aggressively undertaken and backed up by the expertise and facilities of ITCPH, this program gives local swine breeders the opportunity to test their stock and provide them with impartial assessment of the relative performance of their breeding animals.

Since the program seeks to identify genetically superior boars in the country, provide swine breeders with information on relative performance of different available animals as basis for their breeding programs, and secure continuous source of breeding animals for the producers, the program is expected to strengthen the confidence of the swine breeders for our locally raised boars and consequently minimize the importation of breeding animals.

Examined according to the prescribed selection index, the boars auctioned were tested for their average daily gain, feed conversion ratio, backfat thickness, and body conformation.

The boars came from Console Farms, Daily Harvest, Filbrid Farms, Holiday Hills Stock and Breeding Farm, Infarmco, International Swine Genetics, Inc., Luz Farms, Pig Philippines, and Topigs Philippines.

Having been into this program since 1988, PSIRDFI has successfully completed 21 auction sales in the past 16 years.

Another long-running project being implemented by PSIRDFI is the Swine Production Performance in the Philippines. The project was initiated by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) in 1992. In 1998, PCARRD turned over the said project to PSIRDFI.

Among PSIRDFI’s mandates is the conduct of research and development projects for the swine industry. (Raymond M. Galamgam, S&T Media Service)