Reducing non-productive sow days in the sow herd using litter per sow per year

Transcription

1 Reducing non-productive sow days in the sow herd using litter per sow per year Caitlyn Abell, M.S.

2 Why Litters per Sow per Year (LSY)? Improve reproductive performance Increase the efficiency of the sow herd Reduce costly non-productive days (NPD) Any day the sow is not gestating or lactating, she is not contributing to the productivity of the swine operation

3 Components of LSY Trait Entry to first service interval Gestation length 0.25 Lactation length Farrowing rate 0.03 Wean to service interval 0.14 Farrowing interval 0.07 Culling to removal interval Adamec and Johnson (1997), Hanenberg et al. (2001) Heritability

4 Calculation of LSY (number of days gestating) / 115 (number of days in the breeding herd) Ex: Sow removed after third parity / 365 Gestation Lengths: 116, 116, 116 Lactation Lengths: 29, 32, 27 Weaning to Successful Mating: 4, 4 Weaning to Removal: 4

5 Factors influencing NPD Gilt management Performance after weaning Efficiency of heat check Timing of mating Production schedule and pig flow Intentional delayed days Stalder (2002)

6 Cost benefits of LSY Cost of a non-productive day: $ $2.60 Herd average number of annual non-productive days per sow: 35 Improving in LSY can result in: 10 fewer NPD will result in 0.07 increase in LSY NPD correlated with farrowing rate (-0.7) 0.9 more pigs weaned per sow per year Rix and Ketchem (2009); Koketsu (2005)

7 Total NPD Costs per Herd $2.00 per day per sow 35 days per sow 10 days for wean to estrus 2,400 sow herd

8 Total NPD Costs per Herd $2.00 per day per sow 35 days per sow 10 days for wean to estrus 2,400 sow herd $120,000 total costs

9 Economics of a 0.1 increase in LSY 11 fewer NPD per year per sow at $2.00 a NPD $22.00 reduced costs 1 pig increase per year per sow at $22 a piglet $22.00 increased revenue Overall for a 2,400 sow herd (per year) $52,800 reduced costs, $52,800 increased revenue

10 Economics of a 0.1 increase in LSY 11 fewer NPD per year per sow at $2.00 a NPD $22.00 $105,600 reduced costs 1 pig increase per year per sow at $22 a piglet $22.00 increased revenue Overall for a 2,400 sow herd (per year) $52,800 reduced costs, $52,800 increased revenue

11 Objectives To determine the value of implementing LSY into a selection program To estimate the genetic parameters of LSY and other economically important traits To determine the relationship between LSY and farrowing rate, removal parity, and lifetime born alive

12 Data Set #1 44,040 growth records 32,653 litter records 975 sires 7,674 sows International genetic supplier Located in Ireland 4 herds within a single production system November 1992 December 2010

13 Data Set #1 Post-weaning Growth Traits Adjusted backfat (BF) Days to 100 kg (D100) Percent lean (PCL) Reproductive Traits Number born alive (NBA) Wean to estrus (W2E) Litter per sow per year (LSY) Breeds Landrace, Yorkshire Average Parity at Farrowing 3.41 Average Removal Parity 4.44

14 Trait Means and SD Trait Mean SD Number Born Alive (NBA) Wean to Estrus (W2E) Litters per Sow per Year (LSY) Backfat (BF) Days to 100kg (D100) Percent Lean (PCL)

15 Model Equation Reproductive Traits y = Xβ + Zu + e where β is a vector of fixed effects including parity, breed, contemporary group, and the effect of age of first successful mating as a quadratic covariate ASREML (Gilmour et al., 2006)

16 NBA and W2E Contemporary Group Year, month, and herd of farrowing 594 groups Average of 55 litters per group Average of 13 grandsires per group

17 LSY Contemporary Group Year, season, and herd of last farrowing Considered forming based on first farrowing Season: 3 month period January to March April to June July to September October to December 182 groups Average of 42 sows per group Average of 13 sires per group

18 Model Equation Post-Weaning Growth Traits y = Xβ + Zu + e where β is a vector of fixed effects including breed, sex, feeder, and contemporary group ASREML (Gilmour et al., 2006)

19 Growth Data Contemporary Group Year, month, and herd of birth 373 groups Average of 118 piglets per group Average of 12 sires per group

20 Heritabilities Trait Heritability ( SE) Number born alive 0.15 ( 0.02) Litters per sow per year 0.03 ( 0.02) Wean to estrus (d) 0.03 ( 0.01) Adjusted backfat (mm) 0.41 ( 0.01) Days to 100 kg 0.33 ( 0.01) Percent lean 0.36 ( 0.01)

21 Genetic and Phenotypic Correlations LSY D100 PCL BF NBA W2E LSY (0.19) (0.14) (0.14) (0.28) (0.04) D (0.03) (0.03) (0.04) (0.09) (0.63) PCL (0.03) (0.01) (0.01) (0.09) (1.79) BF (0.03) (0.01) (0.00) (0.09) (0.97) NBA (0.01) (0.01) (0.02) (0.01) (0.31) W2E (0.01) (0.01) (0.01) (0.01) (0.00) Phenotypic correlations are below the diagonal. Genetic correlations are above the diagonal.

22 231,858 litter records 4,934 sires 48,662 sows Data Set #2 Located in Thailand Closed herd with own genetic improvement program Integrated system own harvesting facilities Sell commodity pork in Thai market Export products to Japan Data from 9 herds within a single production system October 1993 June 2009

23 Data Set #2 Breeds Landrace, Yorkshire, F1 crosses (L Y, Y L) Average Parity at Farrowing 3.80 Average Removal Parity 5.30 Reproductive Traits Service records Number born alive (NBA) Litters per sow per year (LSY) Lifetime number born alive (LTBA)

24 Trait Means and SD Trait Mean SD Number Born Alive (NBA) Litters per Sow per Year (LSY) Lifetime Born Alive (LTBA)

25 Model Equation y = Xβ + Zu + e where β is a vector of fixed effects including parity, breed, contemporary group, and the effect of age of first service as a quadratic covariate ASREML (Gilmour et al., 2006)

26 NBA Contemporary Group Year, month and herd of farrowing 1,055 groups Average of 220 litters per group Average of 87 grandsires per group

27 LTBA and LSY Contemporary Group Year, month and season of last farrowing Season: 4 month period March to June July to October November to January 274 groups Average of 846 sows per group Average of 93 sires per group

28 Heritabilities and Correlations LSY NBA LTBA LSY 0.11 (0.01) (0.005) 0.01 (0.01) NBA (0.05) 0.02 (0.002) 0.59 (0.003) LTBA 0.16 (0.06) (0.005) 0.11 (0.01) Heritabilities are on the diagonal. Phenotypic correlations are above the diagonal. Genetic correlations are below the diagonal.

29 Relationship between LSY and Farrowing Rate Correlation between sire progeny mean for farrowing rate and breeding value for LSY All sires Pearson: 0.28 Spearman: 0.38 Sires with 5 or more daughters Pearson: 0.41 Spearman: 0.45 Sire with 10 or more daughters Pearson: 0.43 Spearman: 0.49

30 Percentile of LSY Farrowing Rate (All Sires) Farrowing Rate (Sires with 10 or more daughters)

31 Relationship between LSY and Removal Parity Correlation between sire progeny mean for removal parity and breeding value for LSY All sires Pearson: 0.11 Spearman: 0.11 Sires with 5 or more daughters Pearson: 0.34 Spearman: 0.22 Sire with 10 or more daughters Pearson: 0.34 Spearman: 0.23

32 Percentile of LSY Removal Parity (All Sires) Removal Parity (Sires with 10 or more daughters)

33 Relationship between LSY and Lifetime Born Alive Correlation between sire progeny mean for lifetime born alive and breeding value for LSY All sires Pearson: 0.11 Spearman: 0.11 Sires with 5 or more daughters Pearson: 0.29 Spearman: 0.23 Sire with 10 or more daughters Pearson: 0.30 Spearman: 0.25

34 Percentile of LSY LTBA (All Sires) LTBA (Sires with 10 or more daughters)

35 Conclusions LSY is lowly heritable. There are little to no antagonistic relationships between LSY and other economically important traits. Evidence to suggest that LSY has a desirable relationship with farrowing rate, removal parity, and lifetime born alive. Improving LSY can improve farrowing rate resulting in a lower number of costly non-productive days. Improving LSY can improve removal parity and lifetime born alive resulting in improved sow longevity.

36 Implications There is sufficient genetic variation of LSY for tradition selection to be efficiently implemented. A selection index would be needed to ensure that post-weaning growth traits are not adversely affected. There may be value in selecting for LSY because of its relationship with farrowing rate, removal parity, and lifetime born alive.

37 Acknowledgements Major Professor Dr. Ken Stalder Committee Dr. John Mabry Dr. Jack Dekkers Dr. Philip Dixon Funding Iowa Pork Producer s Association National Pork Board

38 Questions??