Guarantee of continued success

Professor Preisinger had held this position for more than 20 years. He has now moved from LOHMANN to the holding level of the EW Group where he has taken on a new role as Chief Technical Officer (CTO) for layer breeding. With his many years of experience in the company, Dr. Schmutz is the best choice to ensure a seamless transition to work in a demanding and exciting time of genetic improvement of poultry according to the needs of the market. This is the basis of our company's success and, with Dr. Schmutz, the continuity of this success is assured.

Career and experience

Dr. Schmutz completed his bachelor's degree in animal husbandry in 1991 and his doctoral studies in 1995 at the University of Kiel, Germany, with the evaluation of breeding data from swine herd books. After leaving the university environment, Dr. Schmutz worked for four years on the optimization of breeding value evaluation of dairy cattle at the German Holstein Breeder Evaluation Center.

Dr. Schmutz joined LOHMANN BREEDERS in 1999, when Prof. Dietmar Flock retired and Prof. Preisinger became chief geneticist. Since then he has always worked in the genetics team and has been actively involved in decisions related to breeding strategies.

Changes in LTZ management, particularly in 2006, made it necessary for Prof. Preisinger to focus more on executive decisions. Already then the main responsibility for the day-to-day breeding work of LTZ was transferred to Dr. Schmutz. Together with the other members of the genetics team, the successful LTZ breeding programs were developed. Our mission: Balanced breeding goals and successful birds.

The focus will be on further improving the performance profile of our already successful birds. Creating genetic breakthroughs at the pure line level and implementing those breakthroughs at the commercial level as quickly as possible have always been the strengths of our breeding business, and will undoubtedly continue to be.

Our balanced breeding goals are the most important mission as our company continues to meet the growing global demand for high performance layers to produce the highest quality table eggs.

The company will have a sustainable future only if commercial egg producers can achieve excellent performance and efficiency. We will continue to work hard to maintain our leading position in this global market.

• Investments of money and resources

• A new purebred farm in Canada

• A new purebred farm in Spain

• Rebuilding of German breeding farms with enriched individual cages

• Relocation of progeny field trials from mostly Germany to Russia, Spain and Colombia, and continuation of field trials in Japan

• Development and application of genomic selection technique.

Investments will continue to ensure the sustainability of the balanced breeding program in the future, also under the new staff constellation. Dr. Schmutz's nearly 20 years of experience in the layer breeding business will ensure that the successful selection pathway continues to focus on economically important traits and ensure that the LTZ lineage portfolio remains well prepared to meet future challenges.