The impact of herd age structure on the performance of commercial sow-breeding farms

• Published in: Porcine Health Management. 2024-11, Vol.10 (1), p.56-12, Article 56
• Main Authors: Sanz-Fernández, Santos, Díaz-Gaona, Cipriano, Simões, João, Casas-Rosal, José Carlos, Alòs, Nuria, Tusell, Llibertat, Quintanilla, Raquel, Rodríguez-Estévez, Vicente
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Breeding sows; Census structure; Parity; Replacement rate; Reproductive performance
• ISSN: 2055-5660; 2055-5660
• DOI: 10.1186/s40813-024-00406-5

The herd age structure, i.e., distribution of sows within a farm based on their parity number, and its management are essential to optimizing farm reproductive efficiency. The objective of this study is to define different types of herd age structure using data from 623 Spanish commercial sow farms. Additionally, this study aims to determine which type of herd age structure can enhance reproductive efficiency at the farm level. Farms are classified into three groups according to the quadratic function fitted to the percentage of sows by parities. This classification unveils three types of herd structures: type 1 (HS1) exhibits a concave-downward trend, with a higher percentage of sows in intermediate parities (mean of 45.5% sows between the 3rd to 5th parity); type 2 (HS2) presents a trend curve that is close to a straight line, with a gradual decrease in the percentage of sows per parity (approximately 2% loss of sows census per parity); and type 3 (HS3) shows an upward concave trend curve, with an increase in the percentage of sows in later parities (19.0% of sows between 7th and ≥ 8th parity). Parametric tests assess productivity differences between the three types of herd structures (p