Large litters from ACMC gilts is one of the reasons for the surge in sales, says Matthew Curtis.

The company, which only started supplying breeding stock in 2002 has steadily increased its proportion of the replacement gilt market and now has an estimated 15 per cent share of the market. It claims to be Britain's fastest-growing pig-breeding company.

Sales of boars and semen have risen by about 10 per cent while breeding stock sent overseas has increased by a massive 46 per cent over the same period.

The growth has come from both existing and new customers, says managing director Matthew Curtis. He puts this down to farmer-to-farmer feedback in the field regarding the fecundity of the ACMC's AC1 F1 hybrid gilts which can rear an extra pig a litter. These contain genes from the highly-prolific Chinese Meishan breed, incorporated in a breeding programme over a 20-year period, while maintaining both growth rate and grading qualities in the slaughter generation.