Farm visit: New Norwegian boar test station is all about data

International breeding company Topigs Norsvin proudly opened the latest location of its expanding global network this June: a boar test station near Hamar in Norway. From here, it can ship about 5,000 boars per year around the globe. Each animal comes with a detailed passport full of data, facts and pedigree.

As rainy clouds come and go, buses packed with visitors are driving on and off. They have all travelled to Løten, about 140 km north of the Norwegian capital Oslo, to admire Topigs Norsvin’s brand new boar test station, called Delta Norway. On this day in June 2024, the Norwegian hosts have spared no effort to create a festive atmosphere before the farm is officially being taken into use. Butchers are working to debone a pig belly and in addition, in a big tent, pølse is being served. This is a typical Norwegian hot dog rolled in a pancake.

For the Norwegian segment of the Topigs Norsvin breeding company, the boar test station is nothing less than a milestone. Norsvin president Per Inge Egeland explains: “It is the company’s biggest investment ever.” The Norsvin cooperative has been existing since 1958. In 2014, Norsvin teamed up with the Dutch genetics cooperative Topigs to form Topigs Norsvin, to jointly conquer the world of pig breeding.

Acquiring data

In that expansion process, the construction of the new facility Delta Norway is the latest step. The new test farm is all about acquiring data. After all, in order to achieve ongoing genetic progress it is vital to know about the breeding pigs’ growth, performance, leg quality and maternal qualities to name a few. Those elements help to eventually determine a breeding value.

In the breeding programme, Topigs Norsvin considers meat quality to be important, just like maternal characteristics, animal welfare and efficiency. Feed conversion therefore is considered a key characteristic, as it constitutes the lion’s share of the costs – especially in Norway where feed is relatively expensive. To illustrate that, Topigs Norsvin emphasises that per finished pig, 22 kg less feed is needed than 5 years ago. Torunn Aasmundstad, director breeding and genetics, says that all users of Topigs Norsvin genetics around the globe together need 660,000 ha of land less for feed than half a decade before.

Creating a central test station

To collect the data, a centrally located test station in Norway was essential. By law, Norwegian farms can only have a limited size of about 100 sows, which makes that boars have to be born and bred all over Norway. Decentral data collection, however, would both be inefficient and expensive.

Once in full operation, the boars will be gathered at Delta Norway at a weight of about 40 kg. The animals will stay at Delta Norway until they are roughly 130 days of age, at which moment they weigh about 130 kg. That is when they may be shipped to artificial insemination (AI) centres all over the country as well as abroad.

The new 4,400 m² large station has a capacity to test 5,000 boars per year, and replaces an older one with a capacity of 3,000 boars.

The area where boars will be put to sleep in order for them to go into the CT scan.

Data collection

The farm site employs 6 people. They will be taking care of the animals and will do trials whenever necessary.

The young boars’ careers start when they enter the test station, at about 40 kg. They get trucked in from all over the country from 36 breeders (28 Landrace and eight Duroc breeders). Transport occurs with a modern lorry, which is also on display at the open door day. The vehicle is equipped with air filtration to keep pathogens away from the loading deck. Initially, the animals will stay in an isolation barn for 2 weeks, during which a health test is being conducted.

The animals end up in a pig house consisting of 11 regular sections with each 12 pens for growing boars. Every pen there has a feeding station following the boars’ feed intake and growth – together those parameters constitute feed conversion. In addition, at the ceiling, above each pen, there is a camera to keep an eye on animal behaviour. That way it is being monitored how often the boars show up at the trough.

All data are being combined and sent to the Norsvin headquarters in Hamar, a town 15 km to the west. A large antenna on the roof ensures that data transmission will always be successful despite the relative remote location.

CT-scan

Without a doubt the most impressive moment of the boars’ stay – and clearly leaving a lasting impression on many visitors – is what happens in section number 12, also known as the “dormitory.” That is where each boar will get a CT scan just before his departure at 130 kg live weight. This phase requires much trial work. Staff will administer a sedative to boars prior to making them go through the scan. The dormitory, consisting of 47 pens, is equipped with a rail running at the ceiling, to which a sleeping boar can be suspended. That way, very smoothly, boars can be scanned.

Of each boar, the CT scan makes 1,200 cross section images. Those images play an important role determining both carcass quality as well as health characteristics. The latter is important in relation to organ development, like e.g. lungs as well as heart, but also the joints. The scan outcomes also play an important role to determine the boars’ robustness.

That characteristic is growing in importance rapidly, as what matters in modern-day pig production is independent sows, which have decent longevity, producing piglets with high vitality. Efficiency, in other words, has become a major breeding goal. A goal which leads directly to a lower CO₂ footprint of pork.

Practical and good fun

In terms of design, the boar test station has been designed in a practical manner. In the back is an area for welcoming young boars. On the side, next to a feed kitchen with a wood shavings dispenser, there is a zone for boars that have not passed the breeder’s quality test, for instance when average growth is suboptimal, having a high feed conversion, inadequate footwork or have displayed too aggressive behaviour, to name a few. Those animals will be sent off for slaughter. In a separate building, attached to the side, and invisible from the road side, is an office and a cafeteria.

In the design, staff has certainly not been forgotten. Good working conditions matter for Norwegian staff, so much is clear. For instance, the weighing unit of the feeding stations are easy to lift for dust removal. After all, dust could impact the scales’ accuracy. Secondly, in the central aisle, there is a systemic ceiling, to mimic the feeling of it being an office environment. Thirdly, the door to each department has been decorated aptly, depicting a different aspect from agriculture. That could be a pig house, or a field of rye almost ready for harvest. Last but not least, the pig house has been designed spaciously, and natural daylight comes in everywhere.

Recent investments by Topigs Norsvin

Topigs Norsvin has been investing in breeding farms at 3 different continents. In May 2023, the company took Innova Canada in use when the first animals arrived. In Canada Topigs Norsvin is breeding Large White sows (Z-line) as well as the TN Tempo terminal sire. At that nucleus farm are 1,600 sows. The unit has free farrowing as Topigs Norsvin expects this type of housing to become standard practice in the future. In this type of housing it is easier to determine maternal characteristics. The breeder believes that sows will need to have the right properties to be producing successfully in free farrowing pens. Investments in Innova Canada amounted to €20 million.

Earlier this year, the company also took into use a nucleus farm in Brazil with over 1,000 sows. This farm houses various dam lines. The Brazilian farm is called Inovare Núcleo Genetico and its investments amounted to almost €7.5 million.

Delta Norway was the third large investment, even though this location doesn’t house any sows, just boars which will stay there for about three months. Investments in Delta Norway amounted to €12.5 million.

Duroc breeder Even Landrø owns a farm with 110 sows.

Even Landrø: “Working with a long-term vision, including welfare”

Pig producer Even Landrø, age 40, is one of the breeders working with Topigs Norsvin. He is based in Skaun, 350 km to the north of the new test station. He says, “I am hoping that, with the new test station, more of my boars could be shipped abroad.” That looks likely, as testing capacity has been expanded from 3,000 to 5,000 boars per year.

From a veterinary perspective, his health status is promising. After a successful depop-repop, his farm became free from Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (App). In addition, Norway is free from Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) as well as Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (M. hyo).

Landrø took over the pig farm from his parents in 2018. Prior to that, he had been working for a Norwegian distributor of machine company Lely for 10 years. When taking over the farm, the Norwegian branch of Topigs Norsvin enquired whether or not he would be willing to breed Duroc boars. In 1996, his father started with breeding Landrace boars. Landrø decided to make the switch and ever since he has been 1 of the 8 Duroc breeders.

It is a conscious choice, he explains. “With Landrace, Norsvin already has a decent product. I would like to contribute that the position of our Durocs will become as strong as Landrace. In addition, Duroc breeding is developing fast. That offers plenty of challenges for me.”

Seeing that the size of Norway’s pig farms is limited by law, Landrø keeps 110 pure Duroc sows, in three production groups. Each 7 weeks there is a farrowing week, followed by a lactation phase of 32 days. Per production group, the breeder ships 40 boars to the new test station. For maintenance of the pure line, he keeps about 35 sows per production round.

The Duroc is being bred for finishing goals, not so much for reproduction. That can be observed in his production figures. Per litter, the sows have 8 piglets on average, plus it is more difficult to get a Duroc gestating again than a Landrace sow. The farm’s “by-products” (i.e. female and male pigs that did not make the selection) will be finished in own pig houses.

As from 6 weeks of age, the boars will leave the farm. Landrø gets paid per delivered boar. The contract with Topigs Norsvin is permanent. Landrø says: “As long as both parties do what they agreed to do and both are happy, we’ll keep on doing this.”

Working with Topigs Norsvin feels right for Landrø, whose mother was on the Norsvin board when the cooperative decided on the merger with Topigs. Landrø says, “They do work with a long-term vision, which includes animal welfare. That is important for me personally, but also for societal support. We are a family farm that hopefully also will continue into the next generation.”