Grimaud Freres is doing selection on Pekin ducks since 1970. Firstly, Grimaud Freres was doing selection on a traditional way, but since 2012 Grimaud Freres has been investing a lot in new technologies.
These investments in research & development have permitted to bring continuous improvements to our STAR53. As a reminder, our main objectives are the following at the breeder level :
– Laying potential, fertility and hatchability
– Egg weight
– Viability
– Egg quality
– Quantity and quality of semence
Our genetic improvements are shown on the laying curve above on the results achieved both in Korea and Vietnam at the GP level first, but also at the PS level with a dramatically improvement compared to previously with achievable 90% in average and peak up to 94% in Korea and 96% in Vietnam. On the table below you can see an average fertility of 91% and hatchability on egg set at around 80%.
Regarding the counter stock STAR53, the objectives that we are working on are live weight improvement, FCR thanks to our RFID system, meat yield and conformation thanks to our scanner. The latest improvements on our duck STAR53 are starting to show on the field.
Firstly in Korea, the best flock that we get performed at 3.67 kg in 42 days with an FCR of 2.04. In Hungary on various tests we get for the best flock 3.39kg at 40 days with an FCR of 2.14.
The most competitive results are obtained from local GGP produced ducks in Australia within Pepe’s duck succeeding to achieve in winter in closed building at 3.21kg with an FCR of 1.81 in 40 days.
In the meantime, the latest test carried out in Germany gives us with the medium STAR53 3.01kg in 41 days of rearing for 2.04 FCR, with a breast meat yield of 21.8% on carcass weight and a leg meat of 21.52%.
