Hermitage Genetics
About Us
Located in County Kilkenny, just South East of the centre of Ireland, Hermitage Pedigree Pigs Ltd was established in 1958 by John-Joe and Lil Nolan. The original Pedigree Landrace herd quickly gained an international reputation for excellent structure, prolificacy and productivity winning all the major championships each year. The herd was expanded by incorporating Pedigree Large White, Landrace, Duroc and Pietrain lines from the best Irish, British and European sources. From this base, the current owners, Edward and Anne Nolan continued to develop the Hermitage herd into a world renowned breeding company. The original genetic lines have been developed using quantitative and qualitative genetic programmes, performance testing and intensive selection, marker assisted selection and the Hermitage BLUP programme.
The Hermitage team provide expertise in Genetics, High Health Breeding Programmes, Artificial Insemination, Herd Management, Research and Development, Transport and Logistics, to our customers worldwide and are committed to a breeding programme that produces genetics and services which optimise performance on our customers’ herds. In recent years, the development of the ‘Hermitage Closed Herd BLUP’ programme has further improved maternal performance with many producers now achieving 30 pigs per sow per year. The Hermitage maternal lines have been developed and selected since 1958, representing 50 years of intensive selection for reproductive performance.
Our new flagship terminal sire line, the ‘MAXGRO’™ has also been setting new records for growth rate and feed conversion efficiency, leading the market in these economically important traits. Supporting the Hermitage genetic products and services, is a world renowned Research & Development programme, focusing on reproductive performance, carcass performance, traceability and gene markers.
At Hermitage, we look forward to working together with our customers for the next 50 years and continuing to produce world class, market leading, high performance breeding pigs, which in turn produce excellent carcasses and which return maximum benefits to all who use Hermitage products and services worldwide.
