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Pig Journal Volume: 58
Publication date: December 2006

Proceedings Section

SETTING A NEW STANDARD FOR THE UK BREEDING HERD
A. Cliff

Abstract
The British pig industry has clearly identified the need to improve reproductive performance as a key objective. The British Pig Executive (BPEX) is providing support to the industry's efforts to improve reproductive performance in pig herds in four key areas: Promoting best practice on-farm; Development of an auditable quality standard for AI; Establishment of a reference laboratory for semen analysis; Promoting and using farm recording as an essential management tool. The UK breeding herd performance is significantly poorer than its close European neighbours, resulting in a higher, less competitive cost of production. The poor UK performance results from small litter sizes and reduced farrowing rates, producing fewer litters per sow per year than its competitors. Reproductive failure and poor fertility are in most cases not the result of a single cause but a complex combination of several, making diagnosis difficult. Producers and advisors frequently under-estimate the cost of reproductive failure as well as the seasonal and environmental effects, when in fact it could be costing producers in the region of £70 per sow per year. The challenge set by BPEX for 2006 is to increase the UK born alive litter size by at least one pig per litter, and the number sold per sow per year by at least two pigs.

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