RM Matheson Farms is proud to have the longest traceable lineage of purebred pedigrees in Canada. We have been on the national performance testing program since 1974 and have had a competely closed heard since 1976. We breed purebred Yorkshire, Landrace and Durocs and try to maintain up to six lines of each breed. By maintaining more lines we keep the amount of inbreeding to a minimum. Our genetic herd is known as Swine Genetics Ontario (SGO).
At this time SGO is well represented in the top 5% of all boars tested across Canada. Boar ARRT 64806X is presently ranked the #1 tested Duroc boar in Canada. 11 of the top 20 Duroc boars in Canada are SGO boars and currenly housed at OSI. Semen from these boars is used in SGO Gridmax and Growlean for commercial producers. We also have 10 of the top 20 Landrace Boars in Canada which are also at OSI. We are well represented in Yorkshires as well.
We test hundreds of boars each year but only the very best are kept for admission to OSI. The next cut is used for private sales and our own use with the remainder being culled to market.
Our animals are selected by estimated breeding values (EBVs) rather than raw data as we believe this is the most accurate method for genetic improvement. After animals are seleceted for EBVs, they are checked for soundness and breed characteristics before going into isolation.
We also have Terminal and Maternal semen available for export from Ontario Swine Improvement (OSI). You can order by calling: 1-800-493-2627.