A Snapshot Analysis Look Into Herd Retention

Although herd structure and retention is critical for ideal sow herd and growing pig performance, sow retention rates have not been commonly measured in many commercial pig farms. As an important opportunity area for future creation of sustainable business performance and competitive advantage more in-depth understanding of constraints and solutions to sow retention is needed. 

 

To aid in base understanding, we conducted a data mining analysis of sow operations across multiple states and ownership type. Our objective was to better understand and quantify differences in sow retention. The sow operations included were all production systems that were generally static in sow inventory and replacement rates over the one-year period of data analyzed. Sow operations included in these analyses ranged from 3 to12 farms and from 7,500 to 50,000 sows. 

 

These data suggest the largest variation between farms in sow retention rates occurs from the time select gilts enter the breeding pool through her second farrowing event. The rate of sow attrition from the second farrowing through the sixth litter was generally similar across farms. These data suggest that limiting the attrition of selected gilts to 10% per parity cycle may be a reasonable benchmark.   

 

Improving sow retention represents a significant opportunity to enhance sow herd and production system efficiencies. Additional understanding is needed to optimize the genetic, nutrition, health, environment and management factors needed to consistently deliver exceptional performance.