Practicalities of Selecting for
Commercial Performance
NSIF Annual Meeting
December 5, 2013
Justin Fix, PhD and Kent Gray, PhD
Overview of Challenges
• Data collection
–
–
–
–
Collect/determine traits of value
Communication
Data transfer infrastructure
Data quality feedback
• Data usage
– Data cleaning/utilization
– Genetic evaluation
• Select the right animal
Commercial Performance –
Terminal
• What commercial performance?
– Growth?
• Birth weight, weaning, off-test weight, carcass weight, etc.
– Mortality?
• Pre-weaning, nursery, finishing, wean-to-finish
– Composition?
• Live animal, carcass, primal yields, etc.
– Carcass quality?
• Live animal ultrasound, carcass subjective, carcass objective,
etc.
– Full value pigs?
Commercial Test Herds –
Terminal
Nucleus
Multiplication
Commercial
Production
Data Collected:
Carcass Composition, Quality, Growth, Efficiency, Mortality, etc.
Commercial Test Herd Data
Flow – Terminal
Nucleus Boar
Stud
Nucleus Sow
Farms
Commercial Sow
Farms
Commercial Sow
Farms
Commercial Wean-to-Finish
$$
Packing
Plant
Additional Communication and
COOPERATION
• Each phase requires additional “work”
– Boar studs
• Homogeneous doses of semen
– Sow farm
• Single sire matings
• Individual pig identification
• Individual pig mortality tracking
– Nursery/finishing/wean-to-finish
• Individual pig mortality
• Track tag loss
– Packing/transportation
• Specific ship times/dates
• Individual carcass tracking
– Weights
– Primal
– Quality measures
Smithfield Premium Genetics –
CTH Model
• Single company with different
business units
– Nucleus/boar stud – SPG
– Commercial farm – MB
– Packing/transportation – SF
• Even with this model,
communication challenges still
exist
– Putting research into a commercial
high throughput system
Nucleus
Multiplication
Commercial
Production
Packing
Breeding Company –
CTH Model
• Likely multiple companies
involved
– Nucleus – genetic company
– Boar stud – genetic company
or contract
– Commercial farms – customer
– Packing/transportation –
customer or third party
“partner”
Nucleus
Multiplication
Commercial
Production
Packing
Commercial Test Herd – Maternal
Benefits, but More Challenges
• Traits of importance?
– Litter traits (NBA, birth weights, pre-weaning surviving, number
weaned, litter weaning weights, etc.)
– Other reproductive traits (AFF, W2E, etc.)
– Lifetime productivity (length of productive life, lifetime NBA,
etc.)
• Benefits to genetic system
– Collect traits censored in the nucleus
• Length of productive life
• Lifetime productivity
• Stayability
– Account for G x E
– Increased daughter records
Commercial Test Herd – Maternal
Benefits, but More Challenges
Nucleus
Daughter
Nucleus
Multiplication
Genetic
Non-Genetic
Controlled Controlled
Commercial Production
Non- Genetic Controlled
Commercial Test Herd –
Maternal
LW and Land
Nucleus Sow
Farms
Boar Studs
LW or
Land
Daughter Nucleus
LW or
Land
LW or
Land
Terminal
Semen
Multiplication
PS Female
(F1)
Commercial Sow
Farms
Using Commercial Data
• Unfortunately, commercial data means
commercial data
– Always data challenges, but these are increased
with commercial data
• Quick and easy data flow
• Data checking/editing
• Data quality feedback
– Boar stud, sow farm, wean-to-finish, packing, etc.
• Data fixes or removal
• Genetic evaluation
Increased Data Flow and
Monitoring
• Boar usage – CTH programs can be
expensive
– Track
•
•
•
•
Doses sent
Matings
Farrowings
Pigs harvested
Using Commercial Data –
Genetic Evaluations and Selection Programs
• Genetic correlations between purebred and
crossbred data
– Growth
• WDA 0.60 and 0.79
– Backfat
• 0.83 and 0.89
– LM depth
• 0.78 and 0.80
Using Commercial Data –
Genetic Evaluations and Selection Programs
• How to “use” the data?
– Combine purebred and crossbred into a single trait?
• At what level of a genetic correlation?
• Are the variances heterogeneous?
– What type of model to use or more importantly
what type of model is available?
• Sire model with unknown dam pedigree?
• Animal model with unknown dam pedigree?
• Full animal model with known dam pedigree?
Using Commercial Data –
Genetic Evaluations and Selection Programs
• How to “use” the data?
– Additional traits in “your” model
• Is computational power an issue?
• Need to use multiple models?
– Economic weighting for indexes?
• All crossbred data?
• Weighting factor between crossbred and purebred
data?
Summary
• Commercial data provides value to a
commercial production system
• Determining traits of importance
– Value vs. costs/logistics
• Communication and data flow
– Work with “partners”
– Data integrity feedback
Summary
• How to best use the data
– Data editing and quality assurance
– EBV models
– Index weightings
• Selecting nucleus animals in the production
system where there are expected perform!