What is the dilemma of pig breeding?

"Pig joint breeding has been carried out in China for more than 20 years, and the effect is not significant. I would like to ask the experts here whether they have confidence in pig breeding in our country. Can we still cultivate our own varieties? " When talking about the issue of joint pig breeding at the 2016 (first) International Pig Industry Development Forum recently held, Wang Lixian, a researcher at the Beijing Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, as the moderator of the forum, raised this question with the experts present.

Conflict of interest becomes a stumbling block in joint breeding

China is one of the countries with the most abundant pig breed resources in the world, with nearly 50 national and provincial local protected breeds. in addition to the lean pig breeds introduced from abroad, many breeds have been cultivated in various places in the past few decades. in recent years, there have been many domestic and foreign hybrid systems. Such rich genetic resources have laid a good foundation for breeding in China. In theory, as long as the market needs what kind of breeding pig, we should be able to cultivate what kind of breeding pig. However, this is not the case. At present, about 95% of the pork in China's consumer market still comes from "du grown up" imported from abroad.

The question raised by Wang Lixian embarrassed Fu Yan, a professor at the School of Animal Science of Zhejiang University. "this question is very difficult to answer." In the 1980s, pig breeding in China received attention, and many professors came back from abroad and wanted to devote themselves to this cause. At that time, the basic situation in our country was that there were many pig farms and small scale, and there were thousands of pig breeding enterprises, but very few of them were really doing breeding. in this case, people pinned their hopes on joint breeding. " Joint breeding requires a lot of performance tests, high requirements for the environment of pig farms, and genetic links between pig farms. For so many years, the joint breeding in our country has not been successful. "I am also one of the sponsors of co-breeding, but I do not have much confidence in co-breeding. But I have full confidence in pig breeding in our country. " Fu Yan explained that half of the world's live pigs are in China, and more than half of the pork consumption is also in China. Nowadays, China's large pig breeding enterprises continue to merge some small enterprises, the scale is getting larger and larger, and they have begun to do real breeding work. As long as the enterprises work hard, pig breeding will certainly be a success.

Wang Lixian is also an expert in breeding and has been to pig farms for technical guidance many times. He said: at present, many large enterprises have begun to realize the importance of breeding and have a certain foundation in breeding work, but joint breeding requires them to share resources and technology. joint breeding of pig breeds with good meat quality and growth rate. The current situation in China is that there are many pig breeding enterprises, and the competition between them is extremely fierce. There is a big deviation in the construction environment, original pig quality, technical strength, breeding level, management level and operation system of the pig breeding farm, so it is difficult to realize the real communication and exchange of information. Therefore, "China's pig breeding enterprises can first breed, and then unite when the common interests are highlighted."

The benefit demand is higher than the breeding demand. The promotion of local pigs is blocked.

In pig breeding, in addition to breeding a large number of commercial pig breeds in the market, the conservation and promotion of local pigs are also worthy of attention.

Nowadays, the problem of whether there is meat to eat has been basically solved, and the question of whether there is good meat to eat has become more and more prominent. Some local pig genetic resources have disappeared, and only a small number of populations remain in the resource farms. The genetic resources of these disappeared pig breeds are not without characteristics, but in terms of growth rate and lean meat rate, they are less competitive than foreign breeding pigs, so the population is gradually shrinking, and the breeding farms are facing more and more difficulties.

Guangxi Yangxiang Co., Ltd. is an enterprise that attaches great importance to local pigs, but the conservation of local pigs has not been smooth in the past two years. In response to the question raised by Wang Lixian, Chen Qingsen, breeding director of Yangxiang Company, introduced the company's progress in local pig conservation in recent years. "the advantage of local pigs in South China is relatively obvious, and many people recognize it. The number of local pigs protected by the company once reached 8000. Unfortunately, the price of pigs was low in the past two years, and a lot of money was needed to preserve the breeds. for the production of the company, we had to get rid of these pigs. today, only a core group of a few hundred is retained. "

After working in the breeding industry for many years, Chen Qingsen has a thorough understanding of breeding work. "there are two kinds of work that people don't like to do in society. One is that we need to collect a lot of accurate data, and the other is that it has not been effective for a long time." but breeding work combines these two characteristics. " In addition, "breeding work also needs a relatively stable system and support from all sides in order to make progress." The work of pig breeding in China is mainly promoted by enterprises, and the various plans of enterprises often change according to the changes of the market. He concluded that the main reason why breeding is not doing well now is that people's need for interests is higher than that for breeding. when this situation changes, breeding work will naturally be able to break through the waves. "at present, the whole industry is developing in this direction."