Canadian pig productivity is rapidly improving, and there’s a simple explanation – breeders and producers are paying attention.
“People are watching the indexes,” said Pramod Mathur of the Canadian Centre for Swine Improvement.
Mathur, who spoke at the Manitoba Pork Council annual meeting, said the tremendous gains in pig productivity appear to be directly linked to the indexing of pig genetic traits, work that he and his colleagues at the centre are involved with.
Once breeders and producers can see the traits of certain pig lines, they appear to quickly incorporate those measures into their herd development strategies.
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For instance, the number of pigs born per sow increased greatly after the industry began recording that production trait in an index. Pigs per litter had decreased from 1984-96, but improvements were sudden after the dam line trait was listed, increasing by about 1.4 pigs per litter and 2.5 pigs per sow per year.
“The rate in genetic improvement in litter size has been phenomenal,” Mathur said.
“We were surprised that we could get that kind of a result.”
Another indexed trait that has helped farmers vastly increase productivity is days to 100 kilograms.
In the past 22 years the days to 100 kg has dropped by 26.4 days, saving an average of $11.80 per market hog.
Days-to-market declined by 1.7 last year, which is worth about 75 cents per pig. For the Manitoba industry, that equals about $6.6 million.
Mathur said indexing of important traits allows producers and breeders to employ the information unearthed by scientific research.
Ironically, he added, litter size improvements have been so successful that producers are now complaining about too many pigs.
Mathur said genetic improvement is an area of breeding where the gains have only started coming.
“There’s lots of potential.”
