Pig Farming In Taiwan Case Study

PIG BREEDING AND HUSBANDRY IN TAIWAN

By: Fong Fai Ng

The history of pig breeding in Taiwan

Domestic pig farming began in the early Japanese era. In Taiwan, it is said that a house can only be called a home if the family is farming pigs. The industry was considered a family business in the early days and was commercialized by Taiwan Sugar Corporation in the year 1953. The company imported purebred Landrace, Yorkshire (also called Large White) and Duroc in year 1958 and started breeding them with the native species Taoyuan in year 1964 to produce hybrid pigs. In year 1968, the company officially established the breeding model of the hybrid pig known as LYD, they provided technical support for farmers and set up artificial insemination (AI) station

The government provided guides such as AI, pig feed management, disease prevention for the farmers who participated the program. The pigs farmed are fed with mixed feed provided by the government and when the pigs are fully grown to market size, they are all shipped to the livestock market for sale. This program further improves pig farming as a family business and hope to lay a foundation for industrial production of pigs in the future.

4 years after the program promoted by the government, the level of pig farming has increased significantly in year 1967. Many of the farmers who treated pig farming as a sub-industry have changed it to a professional (industrial) mode of operation. In the year 1971, the government decided to further expand the scale of pig farming industry by planning 20 areas specifically for pig farming. Through the integrated management of agriculture and animal husbandry, the government hope to expand the industry and improve the economy of the farmers and

Initially, the pig breeding farm was set up under the stockbreeding department of the institute to promote the breeding of pigs. On one hand, it was to strengthen the selection and breeding of Taoyuan and Berkshire, while on the other hand, it was to introduce other breeds such as Yorkshire and Hampshire with the help of the Council of Agriculture. Later in the mid-stage, Landrace and Duroc was also introduced by the Council of Agriculture and new pig pen were built to undergo the 3 breeds hybridization test. In the last stage, in addition of mass breeding of purebred pigs, a hybrid sow supply centre was also set up to promote the breeding of hybrid sow in various districts. The institute also established an artificial insemination supply station so that the production system of the three varieties of meat-used pig in the province will be implemented. Therefore, the main experimental study in this phase is divided into two parts: (I) to evaluate and select the best breed and (II) to find out which mating combinations of the three breed are