The top 10 per cent of farms achieved 30.9 weaned piglets per sow per year. These conclusions are taken from the technical results of 748 Dutch farms with a total of almost 337,000 sows.

Despite the increased production per sow, the mortality of the piglets has fallen slightly and the average piglet mortality is 11.9 per cent. In both 2009 and 2008 it was 12.1 per cent. For the 10 per cent of best farms the mortality was even lower than average in terms of production, being just 10.4 per cent.

These figures demonstrate that the balanced breeding of TOPIGS works. By paying attention to vitality and piglet survival in the breeding programme, the sows can produce bigger litters without the piglet mortality increasing. This, together with the good management on the multiplier farms, makes a positive contribution to realising the agreements made in the covenant with the Dutch government about piglet mortality.

Ninety farms (12 per cent of the total) weaned more than 30 piglets per sow per year. The best farm weaned 33.3 piglets per sow per year.

The results were compiled using overviews from the sow management system sent in by Dutch sow managers. In addition to this, data from farms with their own breeding programme that are linked to the Pigbase system of TOPIGS were also incorporated in the overview.