Abstract A management strategy to improve growth performance at weaning is segregation of pigs in the nursery period by body weight (BW; Light, Medium, and Heavy) in an attempt to increase productive performance and decrease within pen variation in BW. However, the result of current studies indicated that this practice may not be as effective as not sorting pigs. The objective was to determine the effect on productive performance and coefficient of variation (CV) within four categories of BW: Normal (without segregation), Light, Medium, and Heavy. A total of 24 Experimental Units, (EU; 50% barrows and 50% gilts) in an Incomplete Randomized Block Design with four treatments (Trt) and six replicates per Trt. Pen was the EU and block was the weaning group. Treatments were four; Normal (without segregation; 6.35 kg BW); Light (4.45 kg BW); Medium (5.89 kg BW); and Heavy (7.15 kg BW). Pigs were weighed individually on d 21 (at the beginning of the experiment), 70, 119, 135 and 146 of life. Growth data were analyzed using PROC MEANS and GLM of SAS. Results indicated that at the beginning of the experiment (for design) BW and the CV were different (P < 0.05). From weaning to d 70 Medium and Normal categories had similar BW (29.79 vs. 30.57 kg; P > 0.05), respectively. Light and Heavy pigs remained unchanged in their weight categories. Interestingly, the CV at d 70 was 3.46 percentage points greater in all the groups of pigs that were regrouped by weight, in fact, the only group that reduced the CV at d 70 was the Normal (it was decreased by 3.26 percentage points). Average daily gain at day 70 was less (P < 0.05) for Light (0.62 kg/d) compared with any of the other treatments (0.69 kg/d, average of the rest of the treatments). Average daily feed intake was less for Light (0.940 kg/d) followed by Medium and Normal (1.00 and 1.04 kg per day, respectively) and the Heavy which had the greatest intake (1.08 kg/d). No differences were found in removed animals and mortality (P > 0.05). However, the total number of animals treated parenterally was greater in the Light and Medium (16.75 vs. 12.80, respectively; P < 0.05) than the Heavy and Normal (7.83 and 7.00, respectively, P < 0.05). At the end of the experiment the BW of the pigs was different between treatments (P < 0.05) being the Light group pigs the least heavy (120.62 kg), followed by the Medium (128.02 kg) and Normal (131.31 kg) the treatment Heavy was the heaviest with 133.04 kg. These results suggest that segregation in nursery by BW has a negative effect on the CV.
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