Productivity of pigs and the genealogical structure of the breeding herds of Belarusian meat breed

Abstract

The genealogical breed structure is represented by 5 main factory lines: Zubr, Zenit, Zaslon, Zont, Zefir. The genealogical structure of the Belarusian meat breed is formed using the generally accepted selection methods, including the assessment by pedigree, strict selection, targeted selection, the assessment of replacement young by productivity on elevers, the assessment of boars and queens by the offspring quality using the control feeding method. The targeted breeding work with herds of Belarusian meat breed pigs during a long period of time according to the long-term target program allows us to obtain large boars and queens that are characterized by the meat-type body. When assessing boar-producers of the Belarusian meat breed aged 36 months and older in all farms the values of the body live weight and length were on the average 305.3 kg and 179 cm respectively. As a result of studying the reproductive qualities of animals, it is established that, on the average, in the queens selected into the leading group in all farms, the indicators of prolificacy, the weight of one young pig at birth, the number of young pigs aged 21 days and milking ability were 11.74 animals and 1.11 kg, 10.06 animals and 54.34 respectively. The highest growth rate from birth to a live weight of 100 kg was seen in the Zefir line animals – 550 g. The indicator of the growth in reaching a live weight of 100 kg was 181 days. The superiority over the mean indicators of animals of all lines according to these traits was 10.7 days, or 5.6 % and 31 g, or 6.0 % respectively. The Zalon and Zenit line offsprings were inferior to the boars of the rest lines in terms of the growth in reaching a live weight of 100 kg by 2.8–19 days. Their indicators of the daily average growth from birth to a live weight of 100 kg also appeared to be, on the average, lower by 6–49 g. The differences in the Zaslon line boars were confident (р ≤ 0.05).