Prolificacy on white-coated pig farms has improved remarkably over the last few years thanks to genetic improvement. However, the increase in the number of piglets born has led to an undesirable decrease in the survival of the piglets during lactation. Factors related to the sow, piglet, management and genetics influence pre-weaning mortality. This phenomenon, in addition to the economic losses it entails, is a major welfare concern in commercial pig production.
The first edition of the Porc d’Or Award for Lactation Management coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Porc d’Or awards
In times of change for the sector, the Porc d’Or Awards want to recognize the efforts of farmers in different aspects related not only to productivity, but also aspects of animal welfare, health and the environment.
The Porc d’Or Award for Lactation Management aims to recognize, among reproductively efficient farms, those that stand out for a high survival rate of piglets during lactation and good management practices in farrowing units. The winning farms will be those that present the highest survival value of the piglets in their category and have a value of numerical productivity (number of weaners per productive sow and year) above the median (second quartile) of their category. The % survival of the piglets is calculated as 100 minus the losses during lactation (weaned minus live births) over the total number of piglets born alive. For this award, the jury has also taken into account the following aspects related to good management practices in lactation and data collection:
- The difference between adopted and retired piglets must be close to 0 and in any case, the Adopted-Retired index must be less than 10% in absolute value.
- Survival over total births should be consistent with survival over live births; the consistency between the data of live births and stillbirths will be assessed
- The average number of days in lactation must be equal to or greater than 25 days and not present more than 5% of weaned piglets less than 21 days old.
One Porc d’Or Award for Lactation Management per category
This prize is awarded for the first time at the 30th Edition of the Porc d’Or Awards (2023) and it is expected to continue in future editions. In this first edition of the prize, a unique prize will be awarded among three nominated farms per category (10-500, 501-1000, 1001-2000 and more than 2000 sows). A total of twelve nominated farms will share out the 4 awards on the night of October 20 in Lleida.
