The impact of herd age structure on the performance of commercial sow-breeding farms

Sanz-Fernández, Santos; Díaz-Gaona, Cipriano; Simões, João; Casas-Rosal, José Carlos; Alòs, Nuria; Tusell, Llibertat; Quintanilla, Raquel; Rodríguez-Estévez, Vicente

doi:10.1186/s40813-024-00406-5

Porcine Health Management

Table 3 Mean (SD) of productive parameters according to the groups of herd age structures (N = 623)

From: The impact of herd age structure on the performance of commercial sow-breeding farms

	Herd Structure Type 1	Herd Structure Type 2	Herd Structure Type 3	p-value¹	Effect Size²
Mean number of sows on the farm	1319.59 (1109.78)	1462.03 (1252.78)	1461.10 (1248.30)	0.451	0.00
Replacement rate	44.50^a (10.45)	47.31^ab (12.36)	50.16^b (17.94)	0.00**	0.02**
Number of piglets weaned per sow per year	31.17^a (3.27)	29.53^b (3.29)	28.71^c (3.44)	0.00**	0.07**
Culled sow age (months)	31.74^a (10.45)	32.83^ab (10.45)	33.61^b (10.45)	0.00**	0.02**
Farrowings per culled sow	4.44 (0.73)	4.58 (0.79)	4.62 (1.22)	0.20	0.01
Total number of piglets weaned per culled sows	55.37 (10.81)	54.43 (10.89)	54.68 (14.91)	0.73	0.00
Farrowings per sow and year	2.44^a (0.06)	2.44^a (0.08)	2.41^b (0.09)	0.00**	0.03**
Farrowing rate	87.02^a (4.36)	84.68^b (5.72)	82.11^c (5.96)	0.00**	0.09**
Percentage of sows return to oestrus	11.78^a (4.09)	13.85^b (5.64)	16.29^c (5.86)	0.00**	0.08**
Weaning-to-first-service interval (WSI)	5.80^a (1.06)	6.15^a (1.61)	6.60^b (2.37)	0.00**	0.03**
Weaning-to-oestrus interval (WOI)	4.78^a (0.52)	4.86^a (0.67)	5.11^b (0.95)	0.00**	0.03**
Weaning to conception interval (WCI)	8.37^a(2.24)	9.37^b (3.42)	10.38^c (4.04)	0.00**	0.04**
Number of piglets total born	16.11^a (1.85)	15.52^b (2.01)	15.35^b (2.10)	0.00**	0.02**
Number of piglets born alive	14.79^a (1.56)	14.21^b (1.71)	14.00^b (1.76)	0.00**	0.03**
Number of piglets still born	1.33 (0.46)	1.32 (0.48)	1.35 (0.50)	0.76	0.00
Number of piglets weaned	12.75^a (1.33)	12.10^b (1.32)	11.90^b (1.34)	0.00**	0.06**
Mortality rate of BA piglets at weaning	13.64 (4.39)	14.65 (4.63)	14.71 (4.55)	0.048*	0.01*
Mortality rate of TB piglets at weaning	17.98 (7.09)	18.54 (7.01)	18.59 (6.91)	0.67**	0.00

Abbreviations: ^a-c Values within a row with different superscripts indicate significant differences between groups. ¹p-value: * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01
²Effect size (Cohen’s d) classification levels (Cohen, 1988): small (d = 0.01 to < 0.06), medium (d = 0.06 to < 0.14) and large (d ≥ 0.14) effects

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ISSN: 2055-5660

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