LOHMANN’s core under new direction

Effective October 2016, Dr. Matthias Schmutz took over the position of “Director of Research and Development and Chief Geneticist” at LOHMANN TIERZUCHT. Dr. Schmutz was promoted as the new person responsible for this position and will continue to run the successful breeding programs of LTZ and lead the genetics team.

Guarantee for Continued Success

For more than 20 years, Prof. Preisinger was covering this position. Now he changed from LOHMANN to the Holding level at the EW Group and assumed his new job as Chief Technical Officer (CTO) for layer breeding. Dr. Schmutz with his long time experience in the company will be the best choice to guarantee the seamless transition of the dedicated and passionate work for genetic improvement of the birds according to market needs.
This is the foundation of the success stories of our company and with Dr. Schmutz the continuity of this success is ensured.



Career and Experience

Dr. Schmutz completed his University degree in animal breeding in 1991 and PhD study in 1995 at the University in Kiel, Germany, with the evaluation of data from the breeding of swine herdbooks.
After leaving the University environment, Dr. Schmutz worked with the optimization of the routine dairy breeding value evaluation for four years at the German Center for Holstein Breeding Evaluation.

In 1999, at the time when Prof. Dietmar Flock retired and Prof. Preisinger became chief geneticist, Dr. Schmutz started working for LOHMANN TIERZUCHT.

Since then, he has always been working in the genetics team and has been actively involved in decisions related to breeding strategies. Changes in the management of LTZ particularly in 2006, made it necessary for Prof. Preisinger to pay more attention to executive decisions. Already during this time, the main responsibility for the daily breeding work at LTZ was handed over to Dr. Schmutz. Together with the other members of the genetics team, the successful breeding programs of LTZ were conducted.

Our Mission: Balanced breeding targets and successful birds

The focus will be put on the further improvement of the performance profile of our successful birds. Creating genetic progress on the pure line level and implementing this progress to the commercial level as soon as possible, have always been the strong parts of our breeding set-up and for sure, it will continue in this way.

Our balanced breeding targets is the most important mission as our breeding company will continue to meet the growing worldwide demand for high performing layers to produce table eggs of top quality.

Only in a situation where the commercial egg producers can achieve excellent performance and efficiency, can the breeding company have a sustainable future. We will continue to work very hard to maintain our leading position in this global market.

Investments of money and resources

In order to meet the future needs of the markets, LTZ has invested a lot of money and resources in the breeding programs in the past years. These investments include the following:
• New pure line farm in Canada
• New pure line farm in Spain
• Reconstruction of the German breeding farms to enriched single cages
• Relocation of the progeny field test from mainly Germany into Russia, Spain and Colombia, and the continuation of field testing in Japan
• Development and Application of the Genomic Selection technique

Investments will continue to ensure the sustainability of the balanced breeding program in the future, also under the new personnel constellation. The nearly 20 years’ experience of Dr. Schmutz in the layer breeding business will guarantee that the successful way of selection will continue to be focused on economically important traits and ensure that the portfolio of the LTZ breeds remains well prepared to face future challenges.

Genetics Department