Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T01:14:14.485Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The production of more fast–growing heavy pigs every year

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2018

M.A. Varley
M.A. Varley*
Affiliation:
Provimi Ltd., SCA Mill, Dalton, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, YO7 3HE, UK
Get access

Extract

The pursuit of enhanced prolificacy and fertility has been a major goal for the British pig industry for some years and throughout the 1960s to the 1990s advances were made that were generally due to better nutrition and management but genetics also played a significant role. Health status also influences reproduction and the production of faster growing pigs to slaughter. In recent years as farms have become larger and more intensive, our national health status may have been in decline to the detriment of female and male reproduction. Figures 13.1, 13.2 and 13.3 illustrate the changes we have seen in 3 important reproduction characteristics, using data from MLC yearbooks, 1970 to 2003. Farrowing index improved rapidly in the 1970s due, in part, to early weaning reducing the average farrowing interval, but also increased producer awareness of mating management and heat detection procedures helped to push this upwards.

Type
Section 3: A return to competitiveness
Information
BSAP Occasional Publication , Volume 31: The Appliance of Pig Science , 2004 , pp. 85 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Production 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Hughes, P.E. and Varley, M.A. (2003). Lifetime performance of the sow. In Perspectives in Pig Science, Edited by Wiseman, J., Varley, M.A., and Kemp, B., Nottingham University Press, Nottingham, UK, pp. 333–355 Google Scholar
MLC (2003). Meat and Livestock Commission Yearbooks 1970 – 2003.Google Scholar
Pluske, J.R., Williams, I.H. and Aherne, F.X. (1995). Nutrition of the neonatal pig. In The Neonatal Pig: Development and Survival, Edited by Varley, M.A., CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK, pp. 187–235.Google Scholar
Pollmann, D.S. (1993). Effects of nursery feeding programmes on subsequent grower finisher performance. In Proceedings of the 14th Western Nutrition Conference, Edited by Martin, J., University of Alberta, Canada, pp, 243–254.Google Scholar
, Wiseman, CABI Publishing. Oxford, England. NOT CITED????Google Scholar
Williams, I.H. (2003). Growth of the weaned pig. In Weaning the Pig: Concepts and Consequences, Edited by Pluske, J.R., Le Dividich, J., and Verstegen, M.W.A, Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen, The Netherlands, pp. 17–35.Google Scholar