A note on meat production from pigs slaughtered after first weaning a litter

Abstract

SUMMARYFourteen Large White female pigs were mated at about 6 months of age and 90 kg live weight. Three of them gave birth to very small litters and were slaughtered a week after parturition at an average live weight of 166 kg. From the other 11 females 6-week-old litters with average an of 8-8 piglets were weaned. Twenty-four days after weaning the mothers, averaging 152 kg live weight, were slaughtered. Performance was compared with that of unmated females slaughtered at 90 or 130 kg live weight. After subtracting the amount of feed used normally for the production of weaned litters from the total feed consumption of the 14 females which farrowed, the feed intake per 1 kg live-weight gain was 3·67 kg, as compared with 3·43 kg and 4·46 kg in the groups slaughtered at 90 or 130 kg live weight, respectively. The average daily protein deposition in the 14 females together with their litters was 119·6 g, compared with 104·1 and 81·4 g in the control groups.