Impact of piglet birth weight and birth order on growth and the variability in growth

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on January 1, 2007

Sow herd productivity has a major impact on the overall profitability of pork production and Canadian producers have been successful in their efforts over the past several years to increase average litter size. It is well known that piglets born into larger litters are on average smaller. This article examines the relationship of litter size on birth weight and growth, as well as the variability in growth. Data was collected from about 100 farrowings. At birth, the piglets were divided into litter size and also one of 4 birth weight quartiles, 0.80-1.20kg, 1.25-1.45kg, 1.5-1.7kg, and 1.75-2.5kg. Piglets weighing less than 800 grams at birth were excluded from the experiment. It was determined that the light birth weight piglets never completely catch up. While increasing litter size resulted in a decreased mean birth weight by 5 wks post-weaning, the average body weight was similar among litter sizes. The data does not support the hypothesis that larger litters result in more within litter variation. Larger litters were no more variable than small litters and larger litters resulted in more pork produced per sow.

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