Table 1 Descriptive statistics (mean ± SD) for dam parity, number of piglets born alive per litter (BA), birth body weight (BW) and BW at 28 days of age of four main cohorts of pigs retrospectively identified according to the time they spent in each of the production stages in a study investigating management approaches for BW variation in a farrow-to-finish pig commercial farm and their possible implications for animal health

1

–

49

Pigs born one week later and weaned at 21 d of age

NA^c

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

2

–

888

Pigs weaned at 28 d of age

3.3

1.44

13.1

2.53

1.4

0.30

7.3

1.49

2a

326

Pigs weaned at 28 d of age. Split^d by size 3 weeks post-weaning from cohort 2

3.6

1.26

13.0

2.62

1.5

0.27

8.4

1.09

2b

389

Pigs weaned at 28 d of age. Split^d by size 3 weeks post-weaning from sub-cohort 2a and 5 weeks-post weaning from sub-cohort 2c

3.2

1.51

13.0

2.59

1.4

0.30

7.1

1.18

2c

120

Pigs weaned at 28 d of age. Smaller size pigs split^d by size 5 weeks post-weaning from sub-cohort 2b

3.2

1.47

13.3

2.25

1.3

0.29

5.5

0.94

3

–

30

Pigs weaned at 35 d of age

3.1

1.76

13.4

2.23

1.1

0.27

4.0

0.39

4

8

Pigs weaned at 49 d of age

3.0

1.41

13.5

4.41

1.1

0.38

3.3

0.86