Breeding season is upon us. Showpig breeders are preparing to breed for those coveted July-born litters. You’ve been diligently heat-checking those females. You’ve studied every boar catalog and website, looking at pictures and videos, trying to find the perfect sire for each of your females. The plan is in place. The semen is ordered. Now you hope and pray everything goes according to plan so you can farrow a beautiful set of showpigs for your customers.

How many times have you gone through this only to have many of your best females recycle? Have you blamed yourself? Did you blame the boar stud from whom you purchased semen? Do you think it was a combination of factors? As a fellow breeder, I feel your pain and share your frustration. As a swine-industry consultant focused in reproduction, it’s long been a quest of mine to improve semen quality and fertility in the showpig world. I’ve written many articles and implemented many programs over the years to help breeders and boar studs improve semen quality and on-farm fertility. Often times my words have fallen on deaf ears. I’ve always urged breeders to make semen quality the top priority when choosing a semen provider, and the genetics in their stud the second consideration. After all, what good does it do to choose your favorite boar by picture, video, pedigree, etc. if your sow never becomes pregnant? You cannot make genetic progress with open sows.

The good news is that we’ve come a long way since I first started my quest more than a decade ago. While my dedication to the goal may have turned off some boar studs, I can definitely say there is much more emphasis today on semen quality than ever before and the fertility results in showpig herds verifies it. While I still hear a few horror stories each season of low fertility in some farms, overall the industry is doing far better than even just a few years ago. We work with a large (and growing) number of industry-leading showpig boar studs and breeders to help ensure they are putting quality semen doses out the door with every collection. I’ve been very impressed with the dedication and commitment of these firms and their concern for their customers’ success. This is in stark contrast to the perception of some that boar studs just care about shipping watered-down semen out the door and selling as much as possible. Our clients really do care about doing things the right way.

A few years ago, we put together a program called “Cerdos Certified”. The goal of the program was to sign up boar studs for an audit of their stud, lab and processes in order to ensure they are doing the best job possible of producing quality semen doses. There would be an initial audit, followed by whatever changes were recommended, and an annual follow-up audit. We also include semen quality auditing, which means sending samples from random collections to our lab during each breeding season. We would run CASA analysis on the samples to verify motility, morphology and concentration, basically to make sure the semen quality is up to par. Additionally any new boars, boars they have questions about, etc. are all analyzed here to make sure they are good to use. Each of the studs that participated and passed our audit process would be listed on our website as “Cerdos Certified”, with the idea being that you could have extra confidence in purchasing semen from them as they have been through intense professional scrutiny for their processes and procedures and passed the test.

Unfortunately time and labor constraints have thus far prevented us from fully implementing the “Cerdos Certified” program. We do however perform all the services mentioned for several of our clients, most notably the semen sample analysis. We also provide telephone consultation to many of them even if we haven’t been able to fully audit their studs in person. We are often asked about the semen quality produced by various boar-studs and breeders in the industry. Let me be clear. We do not bad-mouth anyone! We are happy to recommend those studs and breeders which we know are doing a great job because we are analyzing their samples on a regular basis. A typical conversation would be, “How is the semen quality from XYZ stud? Can I trust their semen?” We would respond, “They have been regularly sending us samples for analysis, and the motility, morphology and concentration of their doses is consistently on-target. You can feel very confident purchasing from them.” Just because a stud isn’t working with us though does not mean they aren’t doing things correctly. If we don’t know anything about them we simply acknowledge that we don’t have any information to share. I do encourage every semen supplier though, to utilize some third-party audit system, even if it isn’t ours. I also encourage breeders that are concerned about their semen supplier to simply ask a few questions to put their minds at ease.

We purchase a fair amount of semen for my daughters’ showpig herd. While we utilize a lot of our own sires, with more than 100 sows to breed, we purchase a lot of semen as well. Most of the time when semen arrives here, we run a sample though our CASA system before using it. Most of the time, the sample is within normal parameters for motility, morphology and concentration and we go ahead and use it. Often times I will send a video of the CASA analysis to the stud we purchased it from just to let them know we analyzed it and that it looked good. Every once in a while, however, we encounter a dose that does not meet the standards. In those instances, I still send a video of the CASA analysis and let them know that the semen they shipped me wasn’t usable. How they respond is the difference between a reputable supplier and a non-reputable supplier! Listen, we’re all human, and anyone can make a mistake. Even the best-run studs can have a dose that shows up in bad shape at the customer’s end once in a while. When I contact a stud with a bad CASA analysis of their dose, I’m not upset. I just want to let them know, and give them the opportunity to offer a solution to the problem. A reputable stud will acknowledge the problem and offer a solution. “I’m really sorry, Darin. I don’t know why that semen is mostly dead, but what can we do to help? Can we send you another boar? Should we credit back your card? Let us know how we can help!” That is the correct response and one that ensures I will continue to be their customer.

A few years ago I received a shipment of semen from a showpig boar stud. Our CASA analysis showed that the semen was mostly dead, with very low motility and percentage of live cells. It was most certainly not usable. I sent a video of the analysis and called the boar stud. I was told, “It’s fine, just go ahead and use it.” I replied that it was NOT fine, referred them to the CASA analysis that proves it was not fine and told them I could not use the semen. The reply? “It’s fine, I used that same collection in my own sows.” I replied that I wasn’t concerned whether or not they had open sows, but I wouldn’t be breeding my sows with dead semen. The argument continued. I was told that their policy is “guaranteed settle”. I was supposed to use the semen they sent me, and if the sows recycled they would keep replacing it until they settled. I argued that while this is a fine policy, it should begin with them supplying a dose of semen that meets standard industry quality parameters at the time of its arrival! I was reminded of the old joke from “Tommy Boy”. “If you want I can take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, but all I’ve really sold you is a guaranteed box of crap!” Can you guess whether I’ve ever purchased another dose of semen from this boar stud? Whether you’re a boar stud or a breeder that sells semen, you can breed your own sows however you like, but once you make the decision to sell a dose to your neighbor or any other breeder, you have just accepted responsibility for their farm’s fertility. That is an enormous responsibility and needs to be taken with the utmost seriousness!!

Breeders should also keep in mind that you need to do your part as well. Fertility is a complex beast. You can’t just point your finger at the boar studs when your sows don’t settle. Semen quality is a must, but you also have to manage your females properly if you expect high conception rates and big litters. Health, nutrition and management play enormous roles in fertility. Proper heat detection and insemination timing are critical. Management tools such as Fertify™, Matrix and pg600 can also be helpful to make sure sows have a strong, fertile estrus cycle at the optimal time for your breeding season. If you want some help this breeding season to maximize your success or would like some advice about finding a great semen supplier feel free to contact us! We’ll be happy to help if we can!

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