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Problems and Evidence in Swine Breeding^{1, 2,}

University of Minnesota, St. Paul

Abstract

This talk will include first a brief survey of the slate and outlook in swine breeding and then an outline and discussion of means for future progress. Some of you will think a part of it far-fetched. However, those of you who are concerned over swine improvement—and I assume that means all of you—will wish to reflect a little on even those portions.

Let's start with a quick look backward. What has happened in the last century that is pertinent to present-day swine breeding and our understanding of its problems? My list is as follows:

1. Formation of the standard pure breeds and the registry associations designed to promote the breeds and guard their integrity.
   
2. Mendel's work, its rediscovery and the following expansion of our knowledge in genetics. Obviously important has been the development of a body of population and quantitative genetic theory and the accumulation of now quite extensive information on genetic parameters and on responses to selection in various species.
   
3. Recognition of the value of crossbreeding in market hog production.
   
4. Renewed activity in breed formation (Minnesota No. 1, Montana No. 1, Beltsville No. 1, etc.) and the founding of the Inbred Livestock Registry Association.
   
5. A shift of emphasis to economic trait criteria of selection.
   
6. Objective analyses of selection and its effects in work of the Regional Swine Breeding Laboratory and other agencies.
   
7. Demonstration that backfat depth of the live hog can be measured easily and with reasonable accuracy.
   

¹ Read as an invitation paper at the 1958 annual meeting of the American Society of Animal Production.

² Miscellaneous Journal Paper No. 1015, Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station.