At last, a sound genetics alternative |
Newsham Genetics is building market share with a
handsome portfolio of high-health, high-performance lines
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Stop by the Newsham Genetics booth at any pork industry trade show and you’ll sense that something is missing.
There are no photos of the company’s new swine lines, nor will you see aerial shots of sprawling hog units or close-ups of inquisitive scientists holding test tubes up to the light.
Also gone are the funny illustrations of pigs wearing everything from overalls to spacesuits, which whimsically captured the company’s innovative and often colorful past.
What you will see, read and hear is a lot of no-nonsense, straightforward information and trial data about the Newsham’s expanding line of PRRS-naïve, mycoplasma-negative, high-performance genetic products for North American pork producers.
As co-CEO Filip Ackerman puts it: “We are a swine genetics company, and as such, our mission is to provide innovative and tailor-made solutions to the industry. It’s not enough for a genetics company to have a quality product. Progressive producers want a genetics supplier that’s in sync with their performance and health needs. More importantly, they want a genetics supplier that listens and has the flexibility to meet their changing requirements. Newsham is filling these requirements.”
Focus on genetics and health
The company appears to have its sights firmly locked on that vision. As a major part of this new focus, Newsham Genetics, LC — the largest privately held swine genetics company in the United States —expanded its product line and production capacity, forged strong alliances with the industry innovators for multiplication and AI, attracted new investors and shifted its focus to the apex of its genetic pyramid.
The end result is a company that closely resembles the progeny of its nucleus herds: Lean, healthy, prolific and efficient with excellent growth and high quality.
“The pork industry is a fast-paced, competitive environment, and it has consolidated and become more sophisticated,” says Dr. Neil DeBuse, veterinarian and vice president of health and technical service.
“We believe we have the right team and vision at Newsham to excel in these conditions. We are proud of our past, but more importantly, our management team and our clients are excited about our new direction and ability to impact the pork industry. The swine genetics industry now has a strong alternative — Newsham Genetics.”
It’s no wonder that 25% of the U.S. operations with 5,000 to 24,999 sows now rely on Newsham for at least a part of their total genetics program. “As we expand our nucleus herds – a key objective for 2003 – Newsham will have the ability to capture a larger market share with integrators and independent producers,” says Mark Rooney, director of sales.
Hybrid vigor
Newsham was formed in May 2002 when Seghers Genetics of West Des Moines, Iowa — a company that had ranked sixth in the U.S. swine genetics industry — acquired the genetic assets of Newsham Hybrids (USA), Colorado Springs. The new company, aptly named Newsham, emerged as the third largest supplier of genetics in the Americas.
Mergers and expansions are one thing, but as any industry trend-watcher knows, financial stability and direction are another. That’s why Newsham made headlines in Feedstuffs and other leading trade journals last year with the announcement that Bucolica BV, an entity of the financial group based in the Netherlands headed by Ackerman, had made a significant investment in the new company.
“The investment by Bucolica was clearly a vote of confidence in the strengths of Newsham,” adds Bill Mitchell, co-CEO and founder of Mitchell Swine, also a key investor in Newsham.
“But more importantly, it has allowed us to pursue a strategy of growth, both in North America and internationally, through further alliances and acquisitions or mergers. The infusion of new capital was also a big shot in the arm for our R&D and product-development programs.”
Biotech venture
That’s for sure. Only weeks after the Bucolica announcement, Newsham decided to form a joint venture with a new European swine genetics company to share technology and accelerate product development.
Known as Gentec, the new biotechnology company is a joint venture between Newsham and the newly formed Rattlerow-Seghers, a swine genetics company comprised of the former Seghers Genetics NV in Belgium and Rattlerow, a UK-based business with more than 45 years of swine genetics experience. Major investors in Rattlerow-Seghers, which is based in Belgium, again included Bucolica BV, as well as the owners of Rattlerow.
Based in Belgium, Gentec is continuing all research projects started by the former Seghers Gentec and focusing on performance-associated genetic markers, meat quality and embryo-transfer techniques.
As part of the transaction, the new biotech venture inherits the Seghers Genetics patent on BETTERgen Muscle+ (BGM+), a major genetic marker allowing fast genetic progress in muscle mass without compromising meat quality and growth. BGM+ is the first chromosomal region inherited through paternal imprinting, which means market pigs will carry the phenotype of the terminal sire.
Gentec is expected to be the first of several collaborations between Newsham and Rattlerow-Seghers, according to Brent Mitchell, vice president sales and marketing for Newsham.
“We are linked by more than just the Seghers name,” Mitchell says. “Although both companies are independent and for now will focus on their respective markets — Newsham on the Americas and Rattlerow-Seghers on Europe — we are both committed to building a broader genetic base, developing new products and providing exciting options for the world pork industry.”
Crown jewel
And Newsham appears to be off to a good start. Last year’s acquisition of Newsham Hybrids significantly expanded the company’s genetic base, while providing the funds needed to take those products to the next level.
The crown jewel of the Newsham crown is, without question, the new SuperMom parent gilt, which is already setting the new standard for sow performance.
According to Dr. Fields Gunsett, the company’s vice president of genetics and product development, the female is unique in that it combines the extraordinary and unrivaled prolificacy of the Nebraska Index Line (NIL) — the one that posted the highest numbers for reproductive performance in the NPPC’s recent maternal line evaluation — with the outstanding grow-finish and carcass characteristics that the industry had come to expect from the Newsham genotype.
The SuperMom parent gilt is now available for direct purchase from Newsham’s rapidly expanding network of multipliers, which are both PRRS naïve and mycoplasma negative. However, the company is giving priority to developing the line’s GGP and GP components so produces can produce their own SuperMoms and minimize the introduction of live animals.
Lean machines
Newsham is also moving forward with its diverse line of high-performance SuperSire terminal boars, namely the UL (ultra lean), XL (extremely lean) and XM (exceptional meat). Each is well suited to mating with the SuperMom, though trial data show they can outperform other sire lines when mated to competitors’ gilts. The SuperSire line is supported by an extensive network of Newsham’s PRRS-naïve AI Centers that, like the company’s multipliers, meet the rigid health criteria mandated by Newsham.
”Newsham has developed the tools to provide sire line customization, where we develop boars to meet the specific production and end market needs of larger operations,” Gunsett says.
High-health programs
Rounding out the company’s offerings are Checkup (closed herd continuous kernel updating program) and SCMS (self-contained multiplication system), two gene-delivery programs that are helping producers of all sizes close their herds and improve biosecurity.
“By reducing live animal introductions to a herd, we can assist producers in tightening their biosecurity,” says DeBuse. “There is no genetic improvement valuable enough to compensate for introduction of disease into a commercial hog operation. Any steps you can take to become more self-sufficient in your genetics program will go a long way toward reducing exposure and maintaining a high-health herd.”
Besides increasing biosecurity, Checkup and SCMS help forward-thinking operations incorporate new or improved genetics at a faster rate and at much lower cost than traditional methods. Newsham also has developed a software tool, Genetica, which allows the integration of production and genetic data to enhance selection toward tailor-made products.
“It’s clear that the pork industry needs a strong genetics alternative — one that is big enough to be innovative and competitive, yet lean, responsive and nimble enough to manage its health program effectively, provide excellent service and meet the changing needs of today’s pork industry,” says Bill Mitchell. “We’ve built that at Newsham.”