DanBred Academy: On-farm Training

Improve your production with accessible knowledge

“The genetic potential is the most important, and we can see the progress directly in the farms.”

Rafael DeMartini from DanBred Brasil

Higher efficiency? Improved animal health and welfare? Increased economic profit? DanBred On-farm Training helps you increase your production efficiency and optimise your production costs.

The DanBred Academy is our knowledge universe, which now offers all DanBred partners the possibility to participate in On-farm Training.

Learn the best practice procedures

We have a lot of knowledgeable experts internally in DanBred and within our partners all around the world. However, our success is only as good as our ability to transfer that knowledge to you.

Our On-farm Training programme is your tool to learn the best practice procedures, so you can utilise the full potential of our genetics – and it is the perfect balance between technical knowledge and practical tasks.

The experts at the training facility always go out of their way to make sure you feel welcome and taken care of. Aside from our training facilities achieving outstanding results, the team also has great experience with training. That means they are very patient and good at explaining how they carry out the tasks.

Improved practical knowledge

In fall 2022, three of our valuable partners in Latin America signed up for On-farm Training and sent representatives: two from “DanBred Brasil”, one from “DBI Mex” in Mexico, one from “Cipa” in Colombia, and one from “Genetica Porcina Danesa” in Argentina.

All of the participants in this group are advisors in their local markets, where they help support customers regarding best management practices. So, the training programme was tailor-made to fit these needs.

The goal was to bring back inspiration, learnings and knowledge from Danish pig production to their work in Latin America to be able to support the customers even better.

We visited the participants after the training was complete to dig into their learnings…

Testimonial Experiences with On-farm Training

What did they do?

The training began with the technical foundation. The first day, the group visited the DanBred headquarters in Ballerup, Denmark. Here, they got an overview of the Danish pig industry, the new breeding goals, and they were introduced to some of the experts from DanBred’s Technical Service Center and Product Development .

The next day, they visited Danish Agriculture & Food Council and SEGES Innovation in Skejby, Denmark. Here, they learned more about the huge Research & Development department that works professionally to constantly improve DanBred’s breeding programme and ensure world-class results for pig producers worldwide . They also got more practical knowledge about gilt selection, best practice feeding, and how great management can lead to many strong, healthy piglets.

After that, the real practical training could begin. The group spent time at both the breeding farm Kibsdal as well as the production farm Sneverholt . The two farms are located close to each other and are both owned by Bo Kibsdal. Kibsdal is a professional breeding farm that produces excellent breeding animals. Sneverholt is a leading Danish production farm, who’s skilled and dedicated staff works to achieve outstanding results year after year.

What did they learn?

One of the really big takeaways for this group was how simple management steps go a long way. You can achieve the world-class results with the right management routines when working with DanBred animals – it does not have to be complicated.

“It’s the best product in the world, but management is also important.” – Diego Vilela from DanBred Brasil.

It is possible to achieve great results with DanBred genetics no matter whether your production is big or small – and you do not have to make big investments in new equipment. The genetics get you some of the way towards achieving great results, but efficient management gets you the rest of the way.

An example of how the group from Latin America learned new management routines was when they participated in a live selection with the team at Sneverholt:

“I learned a lot from trying to do it myself. It was very valuable for me to discuss with the skilled people what they saw and what I saw.” – Jose Luis Fernandez from DBI Mex.

The group expects this practical knowledge of selections to be valuable when they advise customers going forward.

Why did they visit the professional R&D?

As a part of the theoretical background for the training, the group visited the Danish Agriculture & Food Council, which is where DanBred’s professional R&D department is located. The group was impressed by the skilled and dedicated work that lies behind DanBred’s continuous breeding progress. The researchers that work in our R&D department are never just satisfied; they always want to improve more.

“The genetic potential is the most important, and we can see the progress directly in the farms.” – Rafael DeMartini from DanBred Brasil.

Why should you sign up for the training?

You can always learn more! In DanBred, we believe that there is always room to grow – to stay competitive, we have to stay innovative for current and future market conditions.

With DanBred On-farm Training, you get practical knowledge tailored to your needs. It is good to get inspired from how other farmers perform everyday tasks. Even when those farmers work far away, there will still be good learnings for you.

For the people in this group, it was refreshing to experience a new way of working and a new set of routines. And it even gave them more motivation to go home and improve their production results. For example, in Latin America, there is usually more employees than in a regular Danish pig production, but with simple management routines, fewer employees can also achieve good results. Jose Luis Fernandez from DBI Mex saw this as a challenge to do even better:

“We have more employees, which should make it easier to achieve good results. So, we have a good opportunity to get even better results than in Denmark!”

Even though, you may not be able to implement all learnings 1:1, when you get back from the training, the new inputs may change your mentality and inspire you to review some of the work tasks that you can optimise or simplify.

“After this, I feel much better equipped to answer questions when visiting customers.” – Marcela Trujillo from Cipa.

DanBred Academy

With DanBred On-farm Training, you can also get higher efficiency, improved animal health and welfare, and increased economic profits.

DanBred On-farm Training helps you increase your production efficiency and optimise your production costs.

One DanBred

The group from Latin America highlighted that they got a very special welcome, and everyone were open and eager to teach them the routines at Kibsdal and Sneverholt.

The team at the farm, facilitating our On-farm Training, also learn something, whenever they have a new group by for training; they get relevant questions that make them reflect upon their routines and review whether they are doing things in the most optimal way.

Work smarter with DanBred

“It’s a lot of fun, when it’s such skilled people with a lot of experience. We also learn something – every time.”

– Bo Kibsdal, owner of Kibsdal and Sneverholt

Tip from Bo Kibsdal

Step-by-step implementation:

Make a list of all the good ideas you got from the On-farm Training. You should only implement approx. two at a time to make sure you do not overwhelm yourself and get stuck.