The average Portuguese pig farm participating in the BDPorc System analysis had 591 sows, with an average of 27.63 piglets weaned per sow and year in the first litter, which have 24.89 days of age and an 88.24 percent survival rate at weaning.
The survey results were recently released as part of the BDPorc System Portuguese swine reference database.
The survey also showed that the mean fertility rate among participating farms was 88.11 percent, a weaning-to-concption interval of 8.11 days, and 8.75 non-productive days per cycle. The results also showed that on the average, sow reproduction is stopped at 29.95 moths, giving birth 4.49 times throughout their lifetimes.
The BDPorc system was created in 2015 on the initiative of the Institute for Agri-Food Research and Technology (IRTA) and the Federaçao Portuguesas de Associaçoes de Suinicultores (FPAS). It is a service for the swine sector, whose primary aim is to provide reference information to pig production companies to help improve decision-making.
For the technical-economic management in the porcine sector it is essential to have accurate references and statistics. Moreover, it is also useful to know which direction production and exploitation models are headed. Through this BDPorc service, firms in the sector will have additional comparative references to work with.
