The breeding barn is arguably the most complex stage of production in the swine industry. There are a lot of factors that influence the productivity of the sow and those first few weeks of life for the piglets will impact how efficiently they grow for the rest of their lives. In today’s episode, Dr. Laura Greiner and Jennifer Patterson discuss some of the key components of determining sow lifetime productivity and what recent research has shown for the interactions between sows and low birth weight pigs.

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What you will learn:

1. Key components of sow lifetime productivity

2. Can pubertal age influence sow longevity?

3. Boar exposure in gilt development

4. Methods of determining gilt weight

5. Interactions between birth weight and phenotype

6. Factors that may influence sows to have more low birth weight pigs

7. Research philosophy and sample sizes

8. Key points

Meet the guest: Jennifer Patterson is a research coordinator at the University of Alberta and is part of a team at Livestock Gentec where she currently works closely with clients in the swine industry conducting research focused on health resiliency. At the University, Jennifer is the Senior Research Coordinator for the Swine Reproduction & Development Program (SRDP). She received her MS in Animal Science from the University of Alberta, specializing in Gilt Management and Reproduction. She is responsible for the overall delivery of animal-based research for the SRDP program which includes the administration and coordination of research projects, the analysis and development of research reports and scientific manuscripts, and the presentation of results at various local and international meetings and conferences. She works closely with industry partners and pork production systems in North America to optimize breeding herd management and conducts innovative research projects in commercial settings. Most recently Jennifer is responsible for the overall management of the multi-year, multi-institution, research project on Sow Lifetime productivity (SLP).