900 pigs on a plane will only be a small part of the plan

(This article was first published on the "Liu Run" official account, subscribe to the "Liu Run" official account, and gain insight into the essence of business with me).

Viewpoint: Liu Run, chief writer, Erman

Edited by Ma Jun and Layout by Huang Jing.

In the early morning of December 8, Wuhan Tianhe International Airport welcomed a group of special passengers.

900 pigs, flying in a flying state, set off from Alaska, USA, and after a voyage of thousands of kilometers, came to China.

Yes. Pig. To be precise, it is 900 imported great-grandfather breeding pigs of the pure American line with superior reproductive performance, amazing growth rate and outstanding disease resistance.

The introduction of high-quality varieties is conducive to enriching China's pig resources, improving domestic pig breeds, promoting the transformation and upgrading of pig breeding industry, and ensuring supply and price stability. That's a good thing. Moreover, this is not the first time that Wuhan has introduced imported breeding pigs. On June 15 this year, also at Tianhe International Airport, Wuhan completed the import of 1,000 American breeding pigs with a value of more than 23 million.

However, these two introductions still caused a lot of discussion. In particular, it is a practitioner in the aquaculture industry.

Why?According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, since the beginning of this year, the number of fertile sows in the country has always been higher than the normal number of 41 million heads, and the price of pigs has been running at a low level. In other words, many farmers will spend 2023 in continuous losses. For them, "superior reproductive performance, amazing growth rate, and outstanding disease resistance" at this time are not necessarily a good thing.

So why spend a lot of money to bring in American breeding pigs?Isn't there enough breeding pigs in the country?What is a great-grandfather breeding pig?Does it have anything to do with me?

The stakes are great. Share a point of view with you:The importance of variety may not be overemphasized. Because the variety is the chip of the breeding industry.

What does that mean?Such. Let me tell you three stories first.

A chicken that won the championship

Excuse me, have you heard the rumors of instant chickens?

About a decade ago, there was a "report" circulating on the Internet that revealed the secret of KFC. The "report" said that KFC has a terrifying farm with horrible chickens living on the farm. This is an instant chicken, an inferior chicken. They are full of ducts, delivering hormones day and night to ensure rapid growth. In just a few weeks, they are able to grow 6 pairs of wings and 6 legs. Eventually, it turns into portions of fried chicken and is delivered to your mouth.

The people live on food. This "report" immediately caused heated discussions. Especially moms. Some people say that it is no wonder that KFC only sells chicken legs and wings, not chicken racks;Some people say that they can't eat KFC in the future, especially children, who will be precocious if they eat it;Some people say that this is the Americans deliberately harming Chinese......

Today, of course, you already know that this is a rumor. But what you may not know is that this rumored chicken is not only not an inferior chicken, but also a champion chicken among the best.

Let's turn back the clock to 80 years ago.

During World War II, the world was in a state of extreme strain, and many countries began to implement food rationing. Because of the shortage of cattle and sheep, chickens, which were once looked down upon and only used to lay eggs, were included in the army's supply chain. Overnight, chicken farming became an outlet.

However, this wind comes and goes quickly. After the end of World War II, the supply of pigs, cattle and sheep gradually returned to normal. In contrast, chickens, which have less meat and more bones, are suddenly squeezed out of the table. As a result, the purchase of chicken was quickly withdrawn, and the chicken meat was also greatly imbalanced due to supply and demand. Overnight, the chicken industry was all over the place.

At this critical moment of life and death, Pierce, an American poultry wholesaler, came up with a way to save the chicken industry. He said:

It is necessary to benchmark turkeys and develop new breeds of chickens with thick breasts and thick legs.

In the evening, the results of the competition were announced. White Rock from the Arbor Acres hatchery won the first prize in the thoroughbred race. Cornish from the hatchery in Vantress won the first prize in the crossbreeding division.

Why?The reason is also simple:Bigger, grow faster, eat less. The winner of the crossbred division, Kaunish, had a slaughter weight of 35 pounds, a full 1 pound above the average at the time. And to reach this weight, Kaunish also took only 47 days, which is 43 days faster than the average of 83 days at the time3%。

This directly forms the advantage of crushing. And, instead of sleeping on their palmares, these champions continued to cross and breed to build a large, complex system of crossbreeding, which eventually came to a name that we are more familiar with:White-feathered chickens. In 1957, the average white-feathered chicken grew to 09 kg;In 1978, it was already able to grow to 18 kg;By 2005, 42 kg. At the same time, the feed-to-meat ratio also increased from 2 in 19578:1 (Eat 2.)8 kg of feed for 1 kg of chicken), down to 1 in 20059：1。

In the end, the champions made it to three companies. In front of them, the farmers have no competitive advantage in their own chickens, so they can only buy breeders from them on a regular basis. The three companies don't even need to apply for patents, and they monopolize 97% of the global market share of white-feathered chicken breeders based on genetics alone.

Yes. Globe. Including China.

After the reform and opening up, China began to introduce white-feathered chickens from the United States for breeding and production. In the era, McDonald's and KFC began to enter Chinese mainland, and the domestic demand for white feather chickens began to rise sharply. By 2021, according to data from the China Animal Husbandry Association, the number of white-feathered chickens slaughtered in China reached 653.2 billion, accounting for 56% of the total number of broilers slaughtered43%。If you want to achieve such a large number, you must import breeding chickens. In the beginning, it was $10 per set;In 2008, $23;Now, $55.

Technology, not just in the technology industry. Technological blockade is not only in the high-tech field.

So what to do?That's where science comes in. Look at the picture.

This is a simple quaternary hybrid model. The real situation is far more complicated than this model, but you can first use this simple model to briefly understand the process from "breeder" to "fried chicken".

The first generation, that is, the great-grandfather generation. Suppose, there are four different types of chickens with ABCD. A male + A female, you can get the second generation of A chicken, that is, the grandparents. The second generation of A chicken + B chicken can get the third generation of AB chicken, that is, the parent generation. The third generation of AB chicken + CD chicken can get *** ABCD chicken, that is, the commercial generation, and eventually become food.

So, when we introduce breeders, what generation do we get?

Second generation. Moreover, the male and female are separated. "Each set" generally refers to 1 A male + 10 B female. When they lose their ability to reproduce, they have to buy another set.

Therefore, if you want to ***, you must have your own great-grandfather A male + A female. During the two sessions in 18 years, there were also deputies to the National People's Congress who called for changing the status quo of China's white feather chicken completely dependent on imports.

So, have we done it today?

Did it.

In 2011, Sunner Group launched the white-feathered broiler breeding projectIn 2014, Sunner joined forces with Northeast Agricultural University and Harbin Veterinary Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences to carry out secret breeding in a village in Guangguang County, Fujian ProvinceIn 2019, the initial cultivation was successful and entered the pilot stageIn 2021, "Shengze 901" was officially approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, becoming one of the first three white-feathered broiler breeds with independent intellectual property rights in China. Also selected are the "Guangming No. 2" of Xinguang Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, and the "Ward 188" of Yukou Poultry Industry.

The passive situation of relying on imports for all white-feathered broiler breeders has officially ended.

A cow worth 4 million

Guess what, how much does this cow sell for?

50,000?100,000?300,000?

None of them are right. This cow, named "Thousand Buddha Mountain", comes from Junlebao. Its market** is 4 million RMB. A cow is a suite.

Why is it so expensive?

Because it is a genetically excellent "breeding bull".

Breeding bulls, that is, the fathers of the cows. The milk yield of dairy cows and the quality of milk are greatly related to the genes of dairy cows. The average dairy cow produces 8 tons of milk a year;With good genes, it can produce 14 tons of milk a year. Even more, the milk produced is of better quality. Therefore, whether there is a genetically good father is very important for the cow.

And Qianfoshan, a father with excellent genes, also participated in the "college entrance examination" of breeding bulls, beat the herd, and won the 42nd place in the world.

The so-called college entrance examination is to use genetic testing technology to "answer questions". All breeding bulls who take the college entrance examination have to answer 40-50 subjects, a total of 75,000 questions. Then, from the dimensions of production performance, reproductive performance, health, etc., a comprehensive ranking TPI (Total Performance Index) is generated. You can simply assume that the higher the TPI ranking, the better the breed bull genetically;The better the bull genetically, the more milk the offspring will have.

Many people know Junlebao because of infant milk powder and low-temperature fresh milk. But in fact, Junlebao also has a special breeding company called Pinyuan Biology. Pinyuan Biotech has a subsidiary in the United States, called Aisen Technology. Breeding bulls, it's so important. Therefore, the work of Aisen Technology is to breed excellent varieties. At present, Junlebao has 19 excellent breeding bulls. Among them, 5 of them ranked in the top 200 in the world with college entrance examination results3 of them, in the top 100 in the world. Thousand Buddha Mountain is the best of them.

So, how can we breed such an excellent variety as Thousand Buddha Mountain?

Theoretically, as long as the best next generation is constantly selected, in the 5th, 10th, 20th generations, after a long enough time, the cow breed will definitely get better and better. It's easy to understand. But the problem is, it's too slow. If you continue to pick and choose, people will not be able to drink better milk until 100 years later.

So what to do?Science.

Try to use embryonic technology to improve genetic progress by leaps and bounds. Let the eggs of high-quality cows, and the frozen sperm of high-quality bulls, be inseminated in the laboratory. Then, we put the best embryos into the cows to breed the next generation of high-quality cows. In this way, the genetic level of the next generation of dairy cows will of course be greatly improved. Then, the best of them produce a second generation. And then the third generation. Generation, evolving. With embryonic technology, the level of evolution of 3 generations may be equivalent to the traditional 5 generations. And the quality of the milk we drink will get better and better as a result.

At present, the main indicators such as protein, total number of colonies, and somatic cells of raw milk produced by Junlebao Ranch have been better than the standards of the United States, Japan and the European Union. Scientific breeding is indispensable. In 2023, Junlebao plans to use 15,000 top-grade embryos and put them into cows to breed the next generation of high-quality dairy cows, so that more Chinese can drink better milk.

However, this is not enough. What needs science is not only cattle, but also grass.

Do you know how much feed cows have to eat in their lifetime?

Approximately, 200,000 RMB.

A small cow needs to be raised for about 1-2 years before it can enter the milk production period. Before milk production, you should eat about 120,000 yuan of feed. In two years, you have to eat 240,000 yuan. During the milk production period, eat more. I have to eat 80-100 yuan a day. The 3-5 year milk production period is 100,000-180,000 yuan. In this life, the feed that cattle have to eat is about 200,000 yuan.

In the past, we always said, "Cows eat grass and milk they squeeze." There is a hint behind this statement, which is to say: grass is cheap. Isn't it all grass all over the mountains?Isn't all grass free?But it's not. Cows need a lot of nutrients to grow. Especially protein. Therefore, the grass used as feed for dairy cows, green and oily, is far from enough. Balanced nutrition and rich in protein are good grasses.

For example, oat grass. For example, corn. For example, alfalfa. The crude protein content of alfalfa grass is above 18. Various amino acids account for 6. 3 times higher than corn and 1 more than barley7 times. That's why alfalfa is known as the king of forage.

However, the level of forage cultivation in China today is still very low. American alfalfa grass (excellent and special grade), protein content is 18%-22%. Relative feeding value 170. China's forage grass (many of which are ** products) has a crude protein content of 16%. Relative feeding value 130. So, what you may not know is that China imports a lot of grass from abroad every year to raise cattle imported from abroad. Therefore, of course, the cost of feeding is high.

So what to do?

Plant grass.

As a result, Junlebao began to build a scientific research platform with Zhangjiakou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China Agricultural University and other units and experts. After field comparative tests of 27 imported varieties, 14 oat grass varieties suitable for dam planting were finally selected for large-scale planting. Then, continue to tackle technical problems. For example, how can the workload of pastoralists be reduced?An intelligent system has been used to create an "online farm", and satellite remote sensing technology has been used to automatically identify and accurately inspect the fields. For example, is it harvested today, tomorrow, or next Tuesday, with the best quality and the highest yield?The physical and chemical indexes of oat grass are regularly sampled and tested, and the best harvest date is selected by algorithm.

This set of management methods has greatly improved the quality and yield of oat grass. In recent years, Junlebao has also invested 8 billion yuan in grass and animal husbandry, and built 5250,000 acres of planting base.

From cows, to grass. From embryonic technology, to implantation technology.

That's the power of science.

A pig that is gradually turning powder

Excuse me, pig, what color is it?

In the impression of many people, whether it is the pigs seen in film and television works or the pigs seen in the farm today, they should be white and clean, pink and tender.

But, you know what. In the impression of some older people, pigs are actually black. In the pigsty, there are black pigs. Zhu Bajie in the early film and television works adapted from Journey to the West is also a big black pig.

So, why did the color of the pig change from black to pink?

Because, the variety has changed.

At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in order to restore and develop agricultural production, the state proposed to raise pigs and accumulate fertilizer, and carried out the activity of "accumulating more than one cart of fertilizer and making more grain". Pig production began to develop at a high speed in stumbling. 1952, 52720,000 heads, an increase of 94 from 2.71 million heads in 19495%。This is the first time since the founding of the People's Republic of China that it has exceeded the highest level in history. In 1954, for three consecutive years, a directive was issued on the development of pig production. In 1957, it increased by 32 on the basis of 19528%。This is the second high-yield year for pig breeding after the founding of the People's Republic of China. By 1972, the national pig herd reached 26.4 billion heads.

Amazing speed.

However, pork is becoming more and more insufficient. Why?

Because the population base is getting larger and the material level is getting higher and higher, more and more people can afford to eat pork. At that time, the growth rate of a pig was about 400 grams per day. One year long, it is more than 200 catties. This long speed can't keep up with the speed of eating.

So what to do?Variety introduction. In order to solve the contradiction between the people's growing demand for pork and the imbalance and inadequacy of pork, China has begun a plan to breed overseas pigs. And these overseas pig breeds have very similar characteristics to white-feathered chickens: they are big, grow fast, and eat less.

At that time, the ratio of local pig to meat in China was about 6:1. Overseas large white pigs, Landrace pigs, and Duroc pigs can achieve a daily increase of 900 grams under a feed to meat ratio of about 3:1. Even in terms of reproductive ability, it is reducing the dimension and attacking Chinese native pigs.

Chinese native pigs can give birth to about 10 pigs in one litter. This would have been the reason why farmers were most favored. However, after continuous breeding optimization, the farrowing rate of overseas pigs has reached 18 per litter.

For the sake of economic efficiency, farmers will naturally choose overseas pigs. This is also the result of market screening. As a result, in the 90s, overseas pigs began to enter China on a large scale and cross-bred with Chinese native pigs. The pigs in the Chinese market have slowly, slowly become the pigs we see today, white, white, pink and tender. And, 800 grams per day;The feed-to-meat ratio is 28：1；After 156 days of slaughter, the weight can reach more than 90 kilograms.

Isn't that good?Pork, finally enough to eat. That's a good thing. However, this also means 2 questions.

1) Dependence on imports.

Like the white feather chickens in the past, the great-grandparents of Chinese pork are overseas. Cross-breeding, that is, overseas A male + local B female. After breeding to ***, there will be a deterioration of the breed. The advantages of being big, growing fast, and eating less don't exist. At this time, it is necessary to re-introduce the second generation, that is, the parent generation of overseas pigs.

2) Extinction of species.

Before the 90s, when overseas pigs began to enter China on a large scale, the market share of Chinese pigs reached 90%. But by 2007, that number had plummeted to single digits. According to the Second National Survey of Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources, about 85% of the 88 local pig breeds endemic to China have seen a sharp decline in the number of local pig breeds. Among them, 31 breeds are endangered and on the verge of extinction, and 8 breeds such as Hongqiao pig, Yayang pig and Pingtan black pig are directly extinct.

What to do?Or by science.

Some time ago, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced the results of the review of the 2022 pig core breeding farms. The results showed that 104 core breeding farms and 8 boar stations from 27 provinces and municipalities across the country were finally selected for the list. Compared to a year ago, the list has increased by 12 companies, or 12 percent. And from 2009 onwards, these names that continue to enter the list will take on an important task:Find the genetic code of a breeding pig.

They will observe, detect, and analyze tens of millions of points on a pig, and then screen out hundreds of the most representative key production information, and finally find those who are big, grow fast, and eat less, China's A male + A female.

Thanks to the appeal of agricultural experts and the attention of the authorities, there are also 79 protected areas and 37 gene pools for native pigs. Ningxiang pigs, Rongchang pigs and Tibetan pigs have three national reserves. Taihu pigs, ** Huanghuaihai black pigs and other native pigs have 35 genetic resources conservation farms.

Maybe one day, their genetic code will also be found.

Maybe one day, they will allow us to stop being dependent.

How do you feel after reading these three stories?Why tell these three stories?

Our economic development is moving from "model-driven" to "technology-driven". However, when we think of high technology, we think of artificial intelligence and chips.

Yes. Artificial intelligence and chips are indeed high-tech. However, high-tech has never been just about artificial intelligence and chips.

Every industry has its own high technology. Even if it is a "traditional to the point that it can no longer be traditional" farming.

What is the high technology of aquaculture?

Varieties are the high-tech of the aquaculture industry and the chips of the aquaculture industry.

This chip is related to the food on the table of each of us, the fate of countless companies, the lifeblood of several industries, and even the development plan of a country.

900 pigs on a plane will only be a small part of the plan

So, what about your industry?

Good luck finding chips in your industry.

I wish your industry will change because of your chips.

Come on. Personal opinion, for reference only.