CLUNY, Alta. — Buying breeding animals sight unseen is common in the hog industry, but a Quebec based genetics company wants to change that.
“Before everybody got so concerned about health protocol and biosecurity, people were able to go to somebody else’s barn and pick the boars they wanted,” said Barry Tomiski, vice-president of business development at Geneticporc, which supplies boars and semen in Canada.
Geneticporc conducts live auction sales from a new biosecure facility at Cluny, an hour east of Calgary. Buyers can inspect what is on offer, check the individual’s statistics and make a decision.
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“The common complaint I have heard over the years is, ‘we wouldn’t have picked a boar like that.’ It is a little bit like a lottery. Sometimes they are really good and sometimes you didn’t really like them.”
The company wants to turn the site into a regular auction house that is biosecure and dedicated to selling boars derived from a single breeding site in Quebec.
Called the Boar Store, the concept allows buyers to view animals behind a Plexiglas barrier and make their selections after all health tests are complete.
The business is aimed mostly at Hutterite colonies in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Montana, where natural mating is used. The region has 160,000 sows and needs 8,000 new boars a year.
The first sale was more of a look and see event, although some boars were sold privately. Bids at the auction block were around $500.
Five breeds of high indexing boars born last December were on offer in a buyer’s choice format.
The company provides catalogues with statistical information on rates of gain, feed efficiency, loin size and back fat. Boars are also tested for disease.
No foreign vehicles are on site and all visitors must wear special boots. No producers touch the boars.
“From a biosecurity standpoint, we have taken all the necessary precautions so we don’t bring disease in. These are all single source animals from one finishing facility,” Tomiski said.
Three swine veterinarians developed the health protocol for the project, and Alberta practitioner Madonna Benjamin checked their welfare and looked for disease when they arrived at the beginning of June.
The boars were sorted into social groups before shipping and have been kept in those pods ever since to prevent aggression or the introduction of disease.
Benjamin did not detect evidence of fighting, such as lesions and bruises, or clinical signs of disease, such as coughing and sneezing.
The Quebec site is classified as triple negative status for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus, mycoplasma and actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, a serious respiratory infection.
A second set of health tests is conducted for the diseases following the sale. The boars could be delivered June 27 if there are no positive samples.
The concept is controversial among some vets because of the biosecurity risk, but Benjamin said it offers advantages because producers can observe the individuals up close.
“Producers are actually seeing live boars to see how they walk and how they move,” she said.
