Development and reproductive qualities of sows of different breeds: innovative and traditional methods of assessment

Abstract

The article presents the results of research on indicators of own productivity of pigs and reproductive qualities of sows of different breeds and breeding value, as well as calculates the economic efficiency of research results. We studied the pigs of large white breed and landrace breed. During our research, we evaluated the piglets live weight at birth, weight on second and fourth months, average daily and relative live weight, formation intensity, growth uniformity index and growth stress index, multiplicity, high fertility, milk yield and nest weight at the time of weaning at the age of 28-32 days. The index of alignment (homogeneity) of the sow nest by live weight of piglets at birth was calculated according to Halak (2012), selection index of sow reproductive qualities (SIRQS) – due to Tserenyuk (2014). The economic efficiency of the results was calculated according to the indicator “nest weight at weaning time, kg”. We established that the pigs of large white breed and Landrace breed belong to the first class and elite class in terms of their own productivity. Significant differences between animals of these breeds were established by live weight at birth, two-month and four-month age, average daily and relative gains in live weight during the period of control rearing. The difference between the groups in terms of integrated growth rates (formation intensity, growth stress index, growth uniformity index) ranged from 1.57 to 16.20 %. Analysis of the data shows that sows of great white breeds outnumbered peers of Landrace breed in terms of fertility by 0.5 goals, milk yield - by 3.8 kg, breeding index of reproductive qualities of sows (SIRQS) – by 1.88. Landrace sows were characterised by higher fertility rates (by 0.12 kg), nest weight at weaning at the age of 28-32 days (by 5.3 kg) and safety of piglets before weaning (by 3.5 %). The maximum increase in additional products was obtained for sows of large white breed and Landrace class M+ according to the selection index of reproductive qualities of sows (SIRQS) and these were 16.49–6.23 %, and its value is 412.22 and 166.83 UAH more in accordance.