Photo Report: SPACE 2014

The annual French trade show SPACE was held last week in Rennes, Brittany, France and attracted many visitors from both France and abroad. Stuart Lumb had a good look around.

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The threat of a disease is never far off for SPACE and its visitors. If it is not PCV2, in 2014 Porcine Epidemic Diarrhoea (PEDv) is lurking on the horizon, along with FMD in northern Africa.
Show visitors therefore were confronted with biosecurity measures. Farm visits were cancelled and all exhibitors and visitors were required to walk over disinfectant foot mats as they entered the showground and requested to wear non-farm clothing.
In his opening address, the new SPACE president, Marcel Denieul, paid tribute to…
…his predecessor Jean-Michel Lemétayer, who had been president of SPACE for 20 years, and who suddenly passed away in July 2013.
The French minister of agriculture, Stéphane Le Foll spent 90 minutes touring the show and in his address he expressed concerns about Russia and Ukraine.
The pig halls were visited well by visitors from France and abroad. Notable for instance was ReproXL, a powder innovation by artificial insemination (AI) company Cobiporc to enhance conception rates. Also the Danish breeders of Danavl are seen to gain a foothold in France.
French animal nutrition company Olmix had invited a compliment of 550 individuals from 43 different countries. The company’s technical specialist Marie Gallisson was happy to inform the audience about Mfeed+, a ‘green’ growth promoter boosting enzyme activity in the gut.
Emmanuel Landeau, monogastric products manager for feed company Vitalac, said that the EU partial stall ban, which came into force in 2013, had the effect of reducing sow numbers by 5%. He added that large producers who were planning on staying in pigs had spent money and invested in robust group housing equipment.
Dutch equipment manufacturer Nedap was happy to report at SPACE that it had sold 120 of its pig performance testing systems to French pig genetics company Gene+.