Some key associations show that selection for:
• Growth rate will not significantly improve pork quality traits
• Feed conversion decreases pork quality by making pork lighter in color
• Leaner carcasses will reduce marbling, increase cooking loss and paleness of hams
• Marbling will slightly improve other pork quality traits
There is a myth that selecting for pork quality or eating experience causes pigs to be inefficient during production. This is NOT true, rather it is just a bit more difficult than selecting on just FCR, lean growth and lean yield.
It requires genetic companies to collect new and expensive carcass and pork quality phenotypes, under-stand the relationships between FCR, lean growth, lean yield and pork quality, update the breeding goal/selection index and implement the selection strategy accordingly.
Genesus has always had a vision of improved pork quality
• 25+ years of research and development
• 20,000+ pigs tested
• 1,000+ weeks of data
• On-farm growth and ultrasound data
• In-plant carcass composition and pork quality data
• Genotypes on animals with carcass and pork quality data
We have spent 25+ years relentlessly working to develop genetics that have top production characteristics and pork with outstanding marbling, darker colour and excellent pH to enhance the consumers purchasing and eating experience, as we were determined that this is the direction our industry would come too. We are now there, as our industry is beginning to realize the merits of taste and flavor to enhance consumer demand in both domestic and international markets.
The next logical step for us is to examine the opportunities for increasing primal composition and quality to enhance profitability for our customers.
This program focuses on exploiting existing and new collaborations with research and industry partners including new technologies (e.g. Near-infrared Spectroscopy and Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry). This new focus builds on results from a previous Genesus study that reported options for application of genomic technologies and genetic correlations among performance, pork quality and carcass composition traits in commercial pigs.
At Genesus, the focus has always been to emphasize taste, tenderness or juiciness and never sacrifice them just to achieve quicker improvement in lean yield or a single trait, like FCR.
Genesus includes marbling in the selection index in addition to lean yield and growth efficiency, thus making a product competitive on the production cost side while maintaining an excellent eating experience for consumers.
The Genesus Jersey Red Duroc is widely known for its superior carcass and eating quality traits. Commercial animals sired by Genesus Jersey Red Duroc boars have dominated in independent studies of carcass and meat quality.
