Russia tests new domestic crossbreed

The Smena 9 crossbreed was described as a fast-growing broiler with a high yield of pectoral muscles, a lower fat content, a high feed conversion and uniformity. Photo: Ton Kastermans fotografie

Russian breeding farm Smena begun testing a new domestic poultry crossbreed named Smena-9. The test is done at 2 breeding farms in the Chelyabinsk Oblast. The company plans to register the new crossbreed in the 2nd half of 2020. This would pave the way to get government approval for commercialisation.

According to the geneticists, Smena-9 has a superior performance compared to its predecessor Smena-8. This was already confirmed in preliminary field trials. The crossbreed was described as a fast-growing broiler with a high yield of pectoral muscles, a lower fat content, a high feed conversion and uniformity.

In 2019, the Russian government adopted a domestic breeding base development programme with the main target to boost production performance of Smena, as it is the only farm working on Russian crossbreeds in the country. The target was to drive the share of Smena on the breeding material market of the domestic broiler industry to 15% by 2025.

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The programme envisaged a grant of Rub5.1 billion ($ 80 million) to the breeding farm. The government was concerned that the Russian breeding market was under the control of non-Russian companies, according to the explanatory note to the programme. In 2018, Aviagen Brands and Cobb-Vantress jointly supplied 21 million parent stock to the Russian farms, accounting for more than 90% of total supplies, the government estimated. This poses risks for the national food security, the government added.

State grant for new breeding farm

The state grant will be used to build a new breeding farm in Chelyabinsk Oblast, said Galina Bobyleva, general director of the Russian Union of Poultry Farmers Rosptitsesoyuz. Russian poultry farmers have a desire to work with the crossbreeds of Russian-origin, but the numbers available of those crossbreeds are still insufficient. As soon as they are multiplied, Russia will begin to stock poultry farms with them, Bobyleva said.

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Broiler crossbreed adapted to Russian conditions

The new crossbreed is well-adapted to the Russian conditions, Zhanna Emanuilova, deputy director of Smena told local magazine Agroinvestor. Although, foreign companies are also putting a lot of efforts to adapt their crossbreeds to the Russian conditions, she added. Smena expects that it would be able to receive the grant from the federal government early next year. It would allow Smena to begin building new production sites to start producing and selling breeding material of Smena-9 on the local markets in the 2nd half of 2021, Emanuilova said. The field trials of Smena-9 are expected to be carried out in several regions of Russia, including Ulyanovsk Oblast, Chuvashia Republic and Magadan Oblast, she said.