High-performing farms exploit reproductive potential of high and low prolific sows better than low-performing farms

Table 4 Comparisons between factors for farrowing rates and for weaning-to-first-mating intervals^f

	Farrowing rate, %		Weaning-to-first-mating interval, days
Measurements	N^g	Mean (± SE)	N	Mean (± SE)
Farm groups^h
High-performing farms	181,358	89.3 (0.54)a	145,196	5.9 (0.16)
Intermediate-performing farms	191,554	85.5 (0.50)b	152,492	6.1 (0.11)
Low-performing farms	64,642	81.6 (0.83)c	51,350	6.2 (0.16)
Sow groupsⁱ
High prolific sows	58,327	85.8 (0.39)a	46,758	6.0 (0.09)
Intermediate prolific sows	332,716	86.2 (0.35)a	266,291	6.0 (0.08)
Low prolific sows	46,511	85.1 (0.41)b	35,989	6.1 (0.09)
Parity groups
0	85,096	88.2 (0.34)a	–	–
1	79,267	82.9 (0.45)e	77,447	7.2 (0.08)a
2	70,061	86.4 (0.39)b	69,497	6.1 (0.08)b
3	61,429	86.3 (0.40)bc	61,033	6.0 (0.08)c
4	52,372	86.1 (0.41)bc	52,074	5.8 (0.08)d
5	42,365	85.4 (0.44)cd	42,198	5.7 (0.09)e
6	28,700	84.5 (0.50)d	28,586	5.6 (0.09)e

^a-eDifferent superscripts within a column represent significant differences in means (P ≤ 0.01)
^fMeans and SE were estimated by mixed models
^gN represents the number of parity record
^hCategorized by farm means of the upper and lower 25th percentiles of annualized lifetime piglets weaned per sow over 6 years: High- (> 24.7 piglets); Intermediate- (24.7 to 21.2 piglets) and Low- (< 21.2 piglets) performing farms
ⁱGroups based on the upper and lower 10th percentiles of pigs born alive in parity 1: High (15 piglets or more); Intermediate (8 to 14 piglets) and Low (7 piglets or fewer) prolific sows

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