Impact of piglet birthweight on post-weaning performance and system profitability

摘要

Profitability of commercial swine producers is dependent upon several key factors: reproduction, post-weaning performance, carcass quality, health, and cost-management. Reproduction can be broken down into several factors as well: farrowing rate, litter size at birth and weaning, pre-weaning mortality/morbidity, litter weight at birth and weaning, lactation feed intake, wean-to-service interval, farrowing interval, lactation length, and parity distribution are examples. Some of these traits also have a marked impact on both subsequent reproductive performance as well as post-weaning performance of pigs in the litter in addition to lifetime reproductive performance of gilts in the litter.