Effect of removing pigs from a pen at slaughter weight on the growth performance of the remaining animals

Abstract

When emptying finishing barns, it is common practice on U.S. operations to dispatch pigs over a two- to three-week period with the heaviest animals being selected first. However, there has been little research carried out under commercial conditions on the effect of removing pigs from a pen at slaughter weight on the performance of the remaining animals. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of removing the heaviest 30% of animals from a pen on the subsequent growth performance of the remaining pigs.