Abstract
Pigs were the progeny of White Composite (WC) boars mated to F1 Duroc x WC, Meishan x WC, Fengjing x WC, and Minzhu x WC gilts. Meishan and Fengjing crosses had more (P < .05) nipples than Duroc and Minzhu crosses. Meishan and Minzhu crosses had a higher survival rate at birth (P < .05) than Duroc and Fengjing crosses, but breed types did not differ significantly (P approximately .29) for survival to 14 or 28 d of age. Duroc crosses were heavier (P < .05) than Fengjing and Minzhu crosses at 0, 28, 56, 70, 98, 126, and 154 d of age; they were heavier (P < .05) than Meishan crosses at 0, 28, 98, 126, and 154 d of age. Chinese crosses had similar weights at most ages, although Meishan crosses were heavier (P < .05) than Fengjing and Minzhu crosses at 126 and 154 d of age. Breed types did not differ significantly (P approximately .27) for feed efficiency during the nursery period. Over the entire finishing period, Duroc-cross gilts (.3310) were less efficient (P < .05) than Meishan (.3436), Fengjing (.3454), or Minzhu crosses (.3466); among barrows Meishan crosses (.3176) were least efficient (P < .05), Fengjing crosses (.3263) were most efficient (P < .05), and Duroc (.3211) and Minzhu (.3209) were intermediate but not significantly different from the Meishan or Fengjing crosses. At a constant age, Duroc crosses had longer carcasses, greater longissimus muscle area, and heavier slaughter weight, carcass weight, and weight of untrimmed cuts and trimmed cuts than the Chinese crosses (P < .05). There were few significant differences among breed types for carcass traits at a constant carcass weight. Results show that, relative to one-half Duroc females, incorporation of one-half Chinese females into a crossbreeding program will result in progeny with a significant decrease in rate of growth (approximately 9% for weight at 154 d of age) and a small, nonsignificant decrease in yield of trimmed lean cuts (approximately 5%) at a constant carcass weight.
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