On April 5, 2024, the jury of the Porc d’Or Ibérico awards met at the headquarters of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (MAPA), in Madrid, to decide the farms nominated and awarded in this eighth edition. A total of 66,981 Iberian breeding sows belonging to 83 farms spread throughout the national territory, mainly from the communities of Extremadura, Castilla y León, Andalusia, Castilla La Mancha and Murcia, have been analyzed to select the 64 nominations and, finally, the 32 awards. The selection of the farms has been carried out by the awards jury based on the regulatory criteria and the regulations of the Porc d’Or awards and taking into account the balance and evolution of the results, the constant reliability of the information analyzed, as well as different parameters related to health, animal welfare and the environment.
As in previous editions, this year the Iberian pig farms that, within each of the three categories according to their size, are the most outstanding in relation to three productive criteria have been evaluated: Live Births, Farrowing Rate and Productive Longevity. The jury evaluated the farm that, among all the categories, has had the best productive performance and is worthy of the Iberian Porc d’Or for Maximum Productivity. The candidate farms to be nominated for the Special Awards were also decided, whose final nomination is decided after the visit of a delegation of the Jury to the farms: the Iberian Porc d’Or from the MAPA to Sustainability that recognizes excellence in aspects of health, animal welfare and the environment; the Iberian Porc d’Or to Outdoor Production aimed at Iberian farms with access to the outdoors, and which values the integration of the farm with the environment along with high zootechnical and health standards; and the highest award, the Iberian Porc d’Or with Diamond, in which excellence in overall management, animal handling and compliance with health and welfare standards is jointly evaluated. This year a fifth Special Award is introduced in the Iberian Porc d’Or Awards: the One Health Award from Ceva Salud Animal, main partner of the Porc d’Or Awards. This Award, designed by CEVA, seeks to recognize the joint work of farmers and veterinarians who implement innovative measures on their farms to improve animal health with the perspective of One Health. The award, in its first edition, keeps its call open until next May 6. The best valued farms will be visited by a jury committee and their nomination will be evaluated by the entire Awards Jury in a meeting prior to the gala. Those interested can consult the bases and obtain more information at this link:
The members of the jury who have evaluated the farms in this edition are outstanding personalities related to the world of pig farming and with deep knowledge about this sector: on behalf of the General Subdirectorate of Livestock and Game Productions of MAPA, José Luis Agüero, Deputy General Manager, Pablo Bernardos, Deputy Assistant General Manager, Jesús Salas, head of the swine area, and Ruth Morales, head of service; by the National Association of Pig Cattle Producers (Anprogapor) its director Miguel Ángel Higuera; by the National Association of Select Pig Breeders (ANPS) its secretary Adoración Llorente; by the University of Córdoba, Vicente Rodríguez, professor of Animal Production and Guillermo Ramis Professor at the University of Murcia; by CEVA Animal Health, Roger Galofré, veterinarian specializing in new technologies and swine consultants Jorge González, Juan Luis Criado, Ricardo García, José Antonio Pecero and Pedro López Director of 3tres3 Academy. On behalf of IRTA, Raquel Quintanilla, responsible for the Animal Genetics and Improvement program, and Llibertat Tusell, researcher with the BDporc group and secretary of the jury. This year the jury has two new members, Manuel González Sevilla, technical director of ASICI and Javier García Gudiño, researcher at CICYTEX. The meeting had the monitoring and technical support of Núria Alòs, computer specialist at BDporc, the basis that supports the Porc d’Or Ibérico awards.
BDporc is a service for the Spanish Iberian pork sector whose main objective is to have a reliable database that allows the analysis of the Iberian pork situation and provides reference information to pig production farms as an element to help in decision making.
