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Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
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VARIATION IN PIG PERFORMANCE: A CHECKLIST TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE
Posted in: Meat Quality, Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles, Prairie Swine Centre, Production by admin on July 6, 2017
Variation in bodyweight has a large impact on the profitability of pork production in western Canada.
Variation is measured as either standard deviation or coefficient of variation.
Reasonable targets for CV are 20% of weaning weights, 12 to 15% for nursery exit weights and I 0 to 12% for weight at first pull from the finishing barn.
The number of animals that must be weighed in order to accumtely estimate CV is greater than that required to estimate the avemge weight.
More animals must be weighed at younger ages, because variation as a proportion of the mean is much higher.
If the CV for bodyweight in the feeder barn is above I 5%, reducing it is a reasonable possibility, and probably includes increasing access to feed and water and addressing health problems. if present.
If the CV in growout is less than 12%. then the best strategy is to management variability, as reducing it will be very difficult.