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Prolificacy or heavier litter: when the economy is better?

Victoria Pylypets-Romaniuk, head technologist of «Servolux-Genetic»

Almost all world genetic companies pay key attention to increasing number of liveborn piglets in maternal lines selection. Thus now it is fancy to boast by number of piglets per farrowing, but how far is it economically practical?

More liveborn piglets per sow per year mean lower cost price of one piglet, more weaners per sow per year, more effective sow operation. Now the best farms figures are: more than 15.5 born piglets, more than 14.5 liveborn and 13 weaners per farrowing. At first sight these are good results. But the one-way increasing number of born in litter may cause the undesired effects.

How important is the piglet’s weight at birth

Piglets weight at birth influence the final economic outcome of farm activity as well as piglet number in litter. Why so? The bigger weight the newborn piglet, the more viable it is. Every 100 gr of additional live weight at birth decrease the mortality index till weaning by 0.4%. So if the average piglet weight at birth is 1100 gr and the mortality rate till weaning reach 10%, then increasing the weight to 1500 gr it is possible to decrease mortality to 8.4%.

Piglets, born with heavy weight, weight more at the time of weaning: every additional gram at birth increases live weight by 2.34 gr on 18th day and by 2.7 gr on 23rd day of life (when piglet is weaned). In other words, if increase the newborn piglet weight per 0.5 kg, on 23rd day you’ll wean it the kilo heavier.

  1. Why do costs enlarge with increasing of litter?
  2. How does the one-way increasing number of liveborn piglets influence the amount of dead born animals and mortality rate?
  3. Is there the relation between birth weight and back fat thickness?
  4. What other parameters are affected by birth weight of piglets?

You can find answers for these and other questions in the full version of the article in the magazine «Profitable Pig Production», № 4 (22) 2014

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