Al in breeding pigs

摘要

Tim Harris on artificial insemination, which offers the fastest and most economic genetic improvement route available to anyone. Artificial insemination (AI) of breeding pigs has made tremendous advances in recent years. It is a skill and a discipline that any serious pig breeder should study because it holds the key to the fastest and most economic genetic improvement available to anyone. The concept is simple enough. Instead of one boar on a farm being the sire of perhaps 1,000 progeny from 100 sows, why not use the semen from a wide variety of boars, the best available, resulting from the top two per cent leaving central testing stations? This not only gives genetic variability but also fast genetic improvement in the most valuable factors speedof growth, daily liveweight gain and food conversion efficiency.