Selecting Swine Breeding Stock

The pork producer\u27s primary objective is the efficient production of high quality pork. He needs to select swine for: (1) high sow productivity, (2) rapid and efficient gains, and (3) high carcass merit

Analysis Of Sources Of Variation And Relationships Among Sow Productivity Traits

The swine industry has witnessed major changes in the past three decades in terms of selection tools and implementation of effective selection. As the pork industry continues to consolidate, it is increasingly important to be able to accurately predict and direct future performance toward increased overall profitability. Overall, sow productivity greatly affects a pork producer\u27s ability to be profitable in the industry and have sufficient knowledge of production levels to improve the likelihood of remaining profitable into the future. The relationships among sow productivity traits including total number born, litter birth weight, number weaned, preweaning survival, mean piglet birth weight, and litter weaning weight in purebred and crossbred litters and their relationships with growth performance and composition were evaluated. The initial study found that relationships among many commonly measured sow productivity traits have changed dramatically since the 1980\u27s and selection for certain traits have been more effective than others. The second study found that variation in birth and weaning weights in swine had a large positive effect on the days to market but litter effect on loin muscle area or backfat depth. Sow productivity traits such as litter, birth, and weaning weights have increased drastically in the past whereas threshold traits like survival percentage have not greatly changed in the same time period. Many of the relationships observed in sow productivity were examined by their relationship between number of pigs the sow is allowed to nurse as well as the parity of the dam. These data suggest that genetic superiority for milk production potential may be expressed when the sows are subjected to litter sizes that are larger than average. As number of pigs born alive increases, the percentage of piglets that are light weight increases, competition for food resources increases, and the likelihood of a pig being weaned decreases. Maximum litter weight and number weaned were observed when sows were allowed to nurse 12 to 14 piglets. Above these levels of number of pigs nursed there was no increase in number of piglets weaned or litter weaning weight. Number weaned increased as number after transfer (NAT) increased in a linear fashion up to NAT equal to 10. After 10, there was a curvilinear relationship between number weaned and NAT until number weaned reached a maximum value at NAT equal to 12 to 13. In current studies, increasing litter size did not significantly increase the amount of variation in the piglet birth weights; nor did increasing the number of piglets allowed to nurse increase the variation in piglet weaning weights

Genetic improvement of meat quality and fertility using the national nucleus

Knowledge is power and the National Swine Registry (NSR) is the only source of complete, publicly available, genetic records on nucleus populations. NSR has offered STAGES \u27, a BLUP genetic improvement program with bio-economic indexes for over 17 years. NSR members submit information on 3 sow productivity traits and 3 postweaning performance traits and in return receive across-herd Expected Progeny Deviations (EPDs) for these traits along with indexes for Sow Productivity, Maternal Line (sow productivity and postweaning performance) and Terminal (postweaning traits only) to be used in genetic selection. Not only is this genetic information available to members but genetic values and trends for these traits are also available to any commercial producer or genetic advisor. This program has led NSR members to make substantial genetic improvement for these traits within all four breeds. In addition, this transparent system allows commercial producers to design programs and select animals that allow them the greatest potential for their situation. As the pork industry continues ro change, multiple pork chains are forming to meets distinct specifications desired by subsets of consumers. To continue to meet the demand of these dissimilar pork chains, differentiated genetic lines are necessary to provide products that match their specifications. In addition, as profit per pig continues to decline pork producers must be able to increase product sold per unit of investment. To facilitate this key profitability indicator, the fertility of breeding females must improve. To address these two key drivers in today\u27s pork industry, the NSR has updated their genetic improvement program in these two areas

Effects of nano mineral-supplemented diet on sow productivity

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of nano mineral-supplemented diet on sow productivity. The data were estimated by several parameters consisting of piglet live ratio at newborn stage and weaning stage, piglet weight at newborn stage and weaning stage, metal content in piglet livers. The results showed that live ratio of newborn piglets in group III was highest (93.44 ± 2.83%) comparing with other groups. However, there was no significant difference of live ratio in piglets at weaning stage between nano mineral-supplemented groups with control. The birth weight of piglets in nano mineral-supplemented groups was similar to control group. The birth weight of piglets in nano mineral-supplemented groups was ranged from 1,361.61 ± 47.37 grams (group II) to 1,410.48 ± 44.28 grams (group I). However, the average weight of weaned pigs in groups III and IV was higher than other groups (6,772.92 ± 105.47 grams and 6,818.87 ± 89.59 grams). Moreover, the amount of Fe, Cu, Zn, Mn in piglet liver from nano mineral-supplemented groups have been found to be lower than those in control group. These results revealed that the supplement of nano minerals for sows promoted the reproductive performance of sows and reduced mineral content in the liver of piglets.

The Effects of Gestation Metabolize Energy Levels on Sow Productivity

Restricting the amount of energy a pregnant sow consumes during gestation has been accepted as a very desirable management practice. One benefit of limiting energy is increased litter size at birth because of more fertilized eggs being implanted, less early embryonic death loss and less stillbirths at parturition. Another benefit, particularly at a time of extremely high feed cots, is the economic advantage of less feed consumed during gestation when energy is restricted. At the present time the National Research Council (NRC) recommends 6340 Kcal of metabolize energy (ME) daily for the gestating sow. The study reported herein was conducted to evaluate sow reproductive performance when ME was reduced to an even lower level than recommended by the NRC

Survival analysis of culling reasons and economic examination of production period in sow culling

The culling of the sows is an important task of the breeders and farmers, besides it is a determining factor of profitable pork production. During our research we have surveyed the data of 1969 sows in a Hungarian large-scale pig farm. For the calculation of our results we used one of the non-parametric forms of survival analysis, the Kaplan-Meier analysis. For the quantification of death intensity we applied another survival analysis model, the log-rate exponential model. We have found out the risk values of various culling reasons form the point of view of culling. Besides, we tried to quantify by an economic model how the production period of sows influences the average costs of piglets and the average costs of piglets per kilo at 2006 prices. We calculated that the 5th farrowing is the minimum cost place.Sow culling, Risk analysis, Sow productivity, Average costs of piglets, Livestock Production/Industries,

Influence of Gestation Energy on Large White x Landrace Sow Productivity

Production remains extremely important in our swine industry today. In the past 5-10 years, there has been an increase in the usage of white breeds in swine herds. The white or mother breeds are noted for their increased productivity; however, a question has stirred as to the feeding regime of these productive females. This question is important as feed costs are the major portion of operating expenses for the hog producers. Little controlled research has been conducted in the United States to establish the caloric intake requirement of the white sows during gestation. The National Research Council (NRC, 1979) lists the energy requirement of the bred sow and gilt as 6.1 Meal of. digestible energy (DE) or 5.8 Meal of metabolizable energy (ME) daily. This recommendation is largely based on research with traditional 3-way crossbred sows. Great Britain swine researchers in the 1960\u27s and United States researchers Frobish and workers (1966) were the last to evaluate the effect of gestation energy on strictly white sows. To help answer the current concerns of white sow nutrition, this research project was designed to study the influence of gestation energy on Large White x Landrace sow productivity

Influence of Farrowing Crate Design on Sow Productivity: A Demonstration Project

This demonstration project studied the differences in farrowing crate designs and the survival of piglets. Three basic crate designs were studied: crates with hydraulic side rails, crates with solid rod finger side rails, and freestall crates. Crates with hydraulic sides in this study had more pigs born alive, had fewer pigs born dead, weaned more pigs, and had higher weaned litter weights than any other crate studied. The freestall crates had the least number of pigs born alive, weaned fewest pigs, and had the lightest litter weaned weights. Freestall crates fell in the middle of hydraulic and solid rod crates for pigs born dead. The solid rod crates fell in the middle of hydraulic and freestall crates for pigs born alive and weaned litter weight. Solid rod crates weaned slightly more pigs than freestalls. Solid rod crates had the most number of pigs born dead. Flooring layout was not replicated for all crate designs. Although flooring may have had an influence on the results it was not measurable in this study

CROSSBREEDING IN SWINE: EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

A review of recent swine crossbreeding experiments is presented and integrated with earlier work. Variation among experiments in observed heterosis for specific crosses was large for reproduction and sow productivity traits. However, standard errors of estimates were also large. It seems likely that heterosis, expressed in absolute values or in percentage units, is different for specific crosses. It is unclear whether these differences are large enough to warrant the use of unique parameter values for comparisons of alternate mating systems. In addition to average heterosis values, average direct and maternal genetic effects are given