CIPQ - Quebec

A sound financial decision...

IPQ Inc. (Centre d’insémination porcine du Québec (CIPQ) inc.) was created in 1977 by the Department of Agriculture of Quebec to promote and provide the AI technique to the Quebec swine industry. In 1990, the organization became a crown corporation ran by a board of directors that is mainly pig producers and AI users.
Today CIPQ Inc. operates five (5) AI studs with a boar capacity of 1,050 and sells over 1.7 million doses per year Ron Drapeau, General Manager for the CIPQ, has been the leading decision maker in the implementation of the COLLECTIS® technology.

Genes Diffusion (GD) : When did you decide to invest in the COLLECTIS® technology?

Ron Drapeau (RD) : In 2002, we visited Genes Diffusion’s unit in Laval, France. We saw an impressive layout there, where three COLLECTIS® were working. We were quite impressed with it. Later, we discussed and we evaluated the possibility of installing the COLLECTIS® within our organization, and we decided to install it in two of our units in order to validate the real potential of this technology. After installation, we started to work with the COLLECTIS® with well established goals (X % of success compared to the old method). From there, it has evolved and after five weeks, it was more than 90 % successful. Today, after a year, we can say that all the boars are collected with the COLLECTIS®. We have also installed two other of our units with the COLLECTIS®, early in the spring of 2005. After two weeks, the majority (98%) of the boars are collected with the COLLECTIS®.

What are the main reasons to invest in the COLLECTIS® technology ?

RD : The main and only reason we invested in the technology is the expected overall improvement of the efficiency of the organization. For us, the goal was to lower, in a significant manner, the cost per collected ejaculate in improving the numbers of collection per time unit for each staff member; if this orientation could be achieved, it also means that in our very important production day, we would be able to meet our goals in terms of hour deadline. We also considered the fact that it is not easy to find good and dedicated staff in our industry. With this kind of technology, we are able to do the same amount of work with less staff; the staff feels better about themselves and they operate in a more secure environment.

Is the COLLECTIS® more efficient than the technique you were using before ?

RD : We have installed nine COLLECTIS® in our organization (about 1 per 100 boars). A well trained and dedicated staff can achieve eight collections per hour using the COLLECTIS® technology compared to four collections per hour with the traditional method.We have reorganized the working schedule for our permanent staff. We are also using less part time workers in the organization. Overall, we consider that we need 25 % less working hours in the studs to achieve the same numbers of collections.

Did you notice any changes in semen output or quality ?

RD : During the training process, we observed a little deterioration for certain boars. As soon as the process is well controlled by the staff and boars become familiar, everything comes back to normal. After a full year of operation in all of our studs, we will see if there is an impact. We suspect that we will probably see an increase in the sperm output a little bit because it’s the boar himself who controls the ejaculation process. The bacterial counts that we run every week are still comparable to what we had before introducing the COLLECTIS® technology. We consider hygiene is better because the semen is less exposed to the surrounded air with the COLLECTIS®.

What is the return on investment period ?

RD : The return on the investment is important. Depending on what kind of investment that is made for building transformations, the total return can be estimated between 2 and 4 years.

How was the implementation process ?

RD : That technology can make staff uncomfortable at the beginning because they might anticipate some job loss; as soon as they see that it affects mainly part time workers, the technology is well accepted. On the other hand, the employees see it as an improvement in terms of working conditions, as there is less risk when using that technology.

Genes Diffusion’s team was very efficient to work with; they have specialists that can help in buildings design, staff training, technical support, etc. Using a new technology is one thing but the efficiency of it can be compromised if you don’t rely on the people that can help you solve problems that always come with implementation of new ways of doing things. For us, the people at Genes Diffusion are always there to help; they can provide us with a good service, good products and good expertise. So far we have not experienced a lot of problems with the machines yet; they are not too complicated. Again, we will have a more precise idea on their reliability when we will have a full year of operation in all of our units.

Did the system deliver as promised ?

RD : Yes, we are achieving our goals in terms of cost of labor per collection and we did it faster than expected at the beginning. The COLLECTIS® technology has and will have a positive impact on our operations for many years. It will help us in being more efficient in a more secure way and with better conditions for our workers. I will recommend this technology to anyone involved in the semen collection on a regular basis.

It saves money and time and also improves the efficiency of the organization.

 

Swine products and technology