Sow feed intake and lifetime reproductive performance

For many breeding companies, performance testing in maternal lines is generally confined to traits such as average daily gain (ADG), back fat (BF) and perhaps loin muscle depth or area (LMD or LMA), along with litter size traits such as number born alive (NBA) or total born (TB). More sophisticated breeding programs will also accommodate traits associated with sow performance, longevity or piglet survival, using data from traits such as weaning to conception interval, and litter birth or weaning weights, amongst others. Despite these breeding efforts, poor overall reproductive performance, as measured by pigs weaned per sow per year, and poor sow longevity are common problems in modern pig production systems.