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Industry Partners
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.
Financial support for the Enterprise Model Project and Pork Insight has been provided by:
Factors Driving the Improvement of Average Daily Gain
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles, Prairie Swine Centre by admin on July 7, 2017
At its simplest, growth rate is affected by two factors, namely feed intake and the efficiency with which that feed is utilized for growth. Assuming feed efficiency remains constant, increasing feed intake will increase growth rate; conversely, if feed intake remains the same, improving feed efficiency will improve growth rate. A multitude of intrinsic and extrinsic factors affect growth in the pig. It is only by addressing each, individually and as a whole, that animal growth can be optimized. What is clear is that pork production, while achieving extraordinary gains in the past 4 decades, has yet to fully utilize the tremendous genetic potential of the pig. This is apparent by the variation in performance which occurs among groups of pigs within a barn, and by the diversity of results experienced among producers. It is equally clear that the financial returns which will accrue from achieving higher levels of performance are substantive.
Factors Driving the Improvement of Average Daily Gain