Environmental factors associated with lifetime nonproductive days of sows in the Mexican tropics

Abstract

Objectives. To estimate the lifetime non-productive days (NPD), lifetime proportion of NPD (%NPD) and non-productive days per sow per year (NPD/Y), and to determine the effect of herd and sow level factors on the traits here studied in three pig farms in the Mexican tropics. Materials and methods. Data from 6703 sows from three commercial farms were used. The model that described the traits studied comprise the fixed effects of farm, year and season of first farrowing, age at first parity, reasons of removal of sows, year x season interaction and the residual error. Results. The means for lifetime NPD, %NPD and NPD/Y were 64 days, 12.0% and 39.3 days, respectively. All fixed factors had significant effects (p<0.01) on the characteristics evaluated. Sows having their first parity at an old age and sows culled because of reproductive reasons had the highest lifetime NPD. In addition, sows culled at first parity had lower lifetime NPD and higher %NPD than sows culled in subsequent farrowings. Conclusions. The early culling of sows increased the percentage of nonproductive days, which in turn is expected to reduce the profit of farms.

Keywords

• farrowing
• culling
• productivity
• tropics