Traits Defining Sow Lifetime Maternal Performance

SIMPLE SUMMARY: In pig production, the ability of a sow to produce and rear a high number of viable piglets that meet weight targets for a desired age at slaughter is the ultimate goal. To achieve this, both management and breeding programs have to be tailored and continuously optimized. Reproductive characteristics, maternal attributes, and the ability to maintain body condition are highly variable, both within sows and amongst sows. For individual sows, maternal performance alters with age, and the environmental factors have a large impact on sow performance. This study demonstrated that the sow influences the number of high-quality slaughter pigs produced, which is not solely related to variation in litter size. Accounting for the sow’s influence on the number of tail-enders in breeding programs could assist with producing more high-quality slaughter pigs. ABSTRACT: Declining sow performance with increasing parity or an increase in the number of poor- quality pigs potentially impacts on farm productivity. This study investigated the phenotypic and genetic background of the sow’s influence on (i) the number of pigs not meeting the industry standards (tail-enders) and (ii) changes in performance with parity. Data were available for 3592 sows and their litters (13,976 litters) from a pig production system in NSW, Australia. The mean, standard deviation (SD), and slope for trait values over time were estimated for the sow characteristic traits: number of born-alive (NBA) and stillborn (SB) piglets and body condition of sow recorded with a caliper (CAL), along with maternal effects on piglet performance, represented by: average piglet birth weight (APBW), number of weaned piglets (WEAN), and tail-enders (TEND). Traits were analyzed in ASReml 4.2, by using an animal model. The number of tail-enders produced by a sow is a heritable trait, with a heritability estimate of 0.14 ± 0.04. Sow characteristics and maternal effects on piglet performance expressed by mean and slope had similar heritability estimates, ranging from 0.10 ± 0.03 to 0.38 ± 0.05, whereas estimates for SD traits were generally not different from zero. The latter suggests individual variability in sow characteristics or maternal performance between parities is largely not genetic in origin. This study demonstrated that more attention is required to identify contributions to the problem of tail-enders, and that slope traits could potentially be useful in the breeding program to maximize lifetime performance.