Spanish Reference Swine Database collaboration announced

The Spanish Reference Swine Database (BDPorc) is a platform for assessing the various technical aspects of Spanish swine production and development of research for the sector.
Director-General of Agricultural Production and Markets from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment (MAGRAMA), Carlos Cabanas, the director of the National Association of Pork Producers (ANPROGAPOR), and Miguel Ángel Higuera, and IRTA CEO, Josep M. Monfort, have agreed to promote and collaborate on the BDPorc database.
Initially, it was conceived to place information and elements in the hands of the pig sector as an aid for decision-making during the planning of productive strategies.
Currently,BDporc   has collected over 30 percent of the Spanish breeding census. This year, a Technical-Economical BDporc   also has been launched, with information on production costs and economic margins, and recently, the Iberian Spanish Reference Database (BDporc Ibérico) was created, gathering to date the data of over 20,000 breeders.
Over the last 20 years, BDporc, managed by IRTA, has allowed the pig industry to have knowledge and assess the situation regarding their exploitations in comparison to the reference standards in the sector, receive detailed quarterly reports, and access e-BDPorc, the online   tool that offers immediate, safe, and regular access, to updated information on a series of advanced tools for automatically analyzing data and systematic comparison with the reference values.

Spain slaughters 2 percent more pigs in 2012

During the first nine months of 2012 Spain increased its slaughter of animals and production of pig meat 2.04 percent or 2,615,136 tons compared to the same time period in 2011 of 2,562,840 tons, according to the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture.
The number of animals slaughtered in the first nine months 2012 is 31,473,289 tons, a 2.08 percent increase compared to the same time period in 2011 of 30,832,878 animals slaughtered. 

Spanish company invests in sow multiplier herd

Agapito Torrego Cuerdo invested in 440 sows to meet demand for breeding gilts in Spain.

A 440-sow multiplier herd was established near Segovia in central Spain by Agapito Torrego Cuerdo, a privately-owned company, at a capital cost of €1,459,000 (US$2.08 million) to meet demand for AC1 gilts from British-based international pig-breeding company, ACMC Ltd.
By October or November, the herd will be capable of producing more than 3,500 AC1 breeding gilts per year for sale to independent farmers across Spain, but mainly within the Segovia region. Although the Spanish pig industry has been in crisis for the past three years, due to poor prices, it is still — along with Germany — the largest pork producer in the EU.