Rudolf Großfeld

No one at Minitube embodies the passion for pig reproduction as much as he does. For 11 years, Rudolf Großfeld has enriched the Minitube product management team with his expertise. He enjoys passing on this expertise by regularly conducting seminars and customer audits.
 

Rudolf, you are an internationally recognized expert in porcine artificial reproduction. Can you tell us about your most important academic and professional stations?

I started my training in pig production as an apprentice on a pig breeding farm. The agricultural apprenticeship lasted for 3 years, and I spent each year on a different pig farm. After this, I went back to school to get an agricultural technical degree. I then decided to study agriculture at an University of Applied Sciences. During my final year at this university, I got in contact with the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute of farm animal genetics in Mariensee. I stayed there not only for my diploma thesis, but also for my PhD. During my trial work, I spent one year at the University of Sydney in Australia. After finishing my PhD, I started to work for Minitube. 
 

At Minitube, you work as a Scientific Advisor in Product Management. What is the focus of your work?

I’d describe my work as internal and external consulting for pig reproduction. I am answering product and application related questions of my colleagues at Minitube as well as for customers. This ranges from recommending AI catheters for certain applications, to Big Data analysis of customer data. I also train our own staff as well as customers in porcine reproduction and the associated processes in a boar stud and on the sow farm. Giving presentations on seminars internationally and conducting customer audits is also part my work.
 

Where did your interest and passion for pig reproduction come from?

I grew up on a pig farm and from then on, I never really left the porcine business. I can understand pretty much all aspects of pig production as I did experience each step myself from my childhood on to my professional work life. The combination of extensive practical experience and theory during my education helps a lot to manage the challenges in my daily work. 
 

To keep the use of antibiotics low and to avoid resistance, it is essential to reduce the bacterial load of semen doses as much as possible. When conducting audits, you therefore place great emphasis on optimizing hygiene throughout the entire semen processing chain. Can you summarize the most important aspects?

The basis for hygiene in the boar sperm production already starts with the general design of the boar stud in order to allow a collection process in a clean room. Additionally, the boars need to be kept in an environment where they stay as clean as possible as well. The choice of materials for the collection process has a great significance for the protection of the collected semen. Then, in the laboratory, besides temperature management of the boar sperm, a hygienic design of surfaces and materials is inevitable. The use of disposable materials wherever boar sperms are processed, aides in minimizing the bacterial load in the sperm doses. Water purification and extender preparation are important as the extender builds up 90% of standard semen dose. The tubing of the dilution and filling machines in the laboratory requires sufficient cleaning and sterilization. All these aspects are described in more detail in this article.  Finally, the motivation and knowledge of all personnel working in a boar stud has a very high priority. Only well trained and motivated workers will pay attention to the requirements of hygienic sperm production.