According to DanBred, the site, DanBredInt.co.uk, provides a comprehensive guide to DBI UK's products, services and technical expertise. It also lists full details of its dam and sire line genotypes and the nationwide Danish research and development programme of which DBI is a part.

Other features include news and articles plus a dedicated forum page where visitors can ask questions, make enquiries, add comments and discuss topical issues.

Debate

Simon Guise, Development Manager for DBI UK, hopes the forum will encourage some lively debate.

He said: "Our web site is not just about promoting our business and the benefits of using Danish genetics, we hope it will be a platform for information exchange and knowledge transfer and generate some interesting, forthright discussion," he adds.

He believes the UK pig sector could learn a great deal from Denmark's research-led pig industry. He hopes the DBI UK web site will encourage pig producers to access the considerable amount of technical data and information that is available through the breeding company.

The site offers a direct link to the Danish Pig Research Centre along with information to download on the DBI breeding programme, its performance testing system and its index and breeding statistics.

Leading edge

The Danish pig industry has one of the most efficient and coordinated pig breeding programmes in the world. DBI has played an integral role in this genetic development strategy since it was founded in 1972. The company is owned and controlled by Danish pig producers, it produces most of Denmark's slaughter pigs and has a wide-ranging breeding programme dedicated to providing optimum pig breeding solutions to provide the highest levels of productivity and profitability.

Since 2001, its Danish Yorkshire dam line has had an average progress of 0.30 in litter size per year. The new DanBred breeding goal focuses on live piglets at day 5 post-farrowing – a fertility trait that contributes to approximately 69 per cent of the genetic improvement in the dam lines.