Growth and efficiency of piglets of Danish and Canadian origin in the south of Ukraine

Abstract

In recent years, against the background of a declining share of domestic pig breeds in Ukraine, there has been a trend towards an increase in the share of foreign-bred meat pig breeds, with Landrace and Large White breeds being of particular interest, using different breeding methods. This indicates a growing interest from producers. Duroc boars are consistently leading the way in selling industrial hybrids and crossbreds. The experiment was conducted in 2023 at Agro Novorayske, a limited liability company in the Kherson region. The material for the research was piglets obtained from crossbred sows (Landrace × Large), which were inseminated with sperm from Danish and Canadian Duroc boars. For the experiment, 250 piglets of Danish and Canadian origin were selected using the analogue group method. As part of the scientific and economic experiment, the following were studied: growth intensity, safety, and feed conversion during the rearing of piglets of Danish and Canadian breeds. The efficiency of their rearing was also determined. It was found that piglets of Canadian origin had a 0.8 % higher preservation rate, 8.0 % higher growth rate, and 8.0% higher absolute growth, which resulted in a 7.9 % higher weight of pigs at the end of growing compared to their Danish counterparts. It was proved that piglets of Canadian origin, with equal daily feed intake, consumed almost the same amount of feed during the growing period at nearly identical costs. Still, due to higher growth energy, they showed an 8.0 % lower feed cost per kilogram of weight gain during this period. It was found that piglets of Canadian origin growing at almost equal cost of increasing one head had a 2.50 % lower cost per kg of gilts at the end of increasing but had a 5.2 % higher cost per gilt at the end of growing, 7.9 % higher cost of one gilts at this time, 16.3 % higher income from the sale of one grown gilts and 3.41 % higher profitability of growing one piglet compared to their peers of Danish origin.