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A Swine Production System Based on the Use of One Pen from Birth to Marketing^{1, 2,}

The Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16802

Abstract

A farrow-to-finish system in which pigs were raised from birth to market in the same pen was compared with a conventional system in which pigs were moved twice and mixed with pigs from other litters for a finishing period. The pigs in the conventional system were farrowed in one pen, moved to a second pen in another wing of the barn for a growing period and mixed with pigs from other litters and grown out to market weight in a third pen. There were four trials or farrowing periods with a total of 78 litters being raised in the farrow-to-finish system and 85 litters in the conventional system.

The pigs raised in the farrow-to-finish system grew slower during the finishing period and took longer to reach market weight than pigs grown in the conventional system. A farrow-to-finish system requires closer scheduling of breeding than is possible with one herd and breeding to farrow in one unit.

¹ Approved by the Director, The Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station, No. 4068 of the Journal Series.

² The authors extend their appreciation for the support of this research by Agway, Inc., Syracuse, New York and by Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

³ Present address: Department of Animal Husbandry, Michigan State University, East Lansing.