To meet the growing demand for high-health stock, both at home and abroad, international pig-breeding company ACMC Ltd is setting up fresh production facilities.
Three new farms, a high-health 400-sow dam-line nucleus unit, a 500-sow multiplication unit and a 200-sow high-health boar nucleus unit are being established in Yorkshire but away from areas of high pig density.
Production is being expanded and relocated from existing company-owned farms near its headquarters in East Yorkshire and ACMC is now actively seeking additional high-health multipliers in other parts of the country, particularly Scotland.
These moves follow the sales success of the company's breeding stock, which has built up a reputation for outstanding productivity - due to the inclusion of a specific blend of Chinese genes - combined with carcase quality in the finished pigs.
Rapid expansion in the Far East and Eastern Europe has resulted in thousands of breeding pigs being sold in Thailand and the Philippines, Poland and Romania, in addition to the UK and European mainland.
"Health can be a major limiting factor in pig production. In today's highly competitive world, customers insist on the best possible health standards and we are continually gearing our production to meet this demand, which has recently been outstripping supply," commented Stephen Curtis, ACMC's executive chairman.
"It is important for the economics of our customers' production systems that our stock is able to express its full genetic potential for such vital factors as fertility, growth and feed conversion efficiency without being held back by health issues."
