Sow body condition at weaning and reproduction performance in organic piglet production

The objective was to investigate the variation in backfat at weaning and its relations to reproduction results in organic sow herds in Denmark. The study included eight herds and 573 sows. The average backfat at weaning mean�13 mm; SD�4.2 mm) ranging from 10.5 to 17.3 mm among herds shows that it is possible to avoid poor body condition at weaning even with a lactation length of seven weeks or more. No main effect of backfat at weaning on reproduction performance was found, but the probability of a successful reproduction after weaning tended to decrease with decreasing backfat for first parity sows, whereas the opposite was the case for multiparous sows

Estimation of genetic parameters for birth weight, preweaning mortality, and hot carcass weight of crossbred pigs

Genetic parameters for birth weight (BWT), preweaning mortality (PWM), and hot carcass weight (HCW) were estimated for a crossbred pig population to determine if BWT could be used as an early predictor for later performances. Sire genetic effects for those traits were estimated to determine if early selection of purebred sires used in crossbreeding could be improved. Data were recorded from one commercial farm between 2008 and 2010. Data were from 24,376 crossbred pigs from Duroc sires and crossbred Large White × Landrace dams and included 24,376 BWT and PWM records, and 13,029 HCW records. For the analysis, PWM was considered as a binary trait (0 for live or 1 for dead piglet at weaning). A multi-trait threshold-linear animal model was used, with animal effect divided into sire genetic and dam effects; the dam effects included both genetic and environmental variation due to the absence of pedigree information for crossbred dams. Fixed effects were sex and parity for all traits, contemporary groups for BWT and HCW, and age at slaughter as a linear covariable for HCW. Random effects were sire additive genetic, dam, litter, and residual effects for all traits, and contemporary group for PWM. Heritability estimates were 0.04 for BWT, 0.02 for PWM, and 0.12 for HCW. Ratio between sire genetic and total estimated variances was 0.01 for BWT and PWM, and 0.03 for HCW. Dam and litter variances explained respectively 14% and 15% of total variance for BWT, 2% and 10% for PWM, and 3% and 8% for HCW. Genetic correlations were −0.52 between BWT and PWM, 0.55 between BWT and HCW, and -0.13 between PWM and HCW. Selection of purebred sires for higher BWT of crossbreds may slightly improve survival until weaning and final market weight at the commercial level