Reproduction

Although U.S. cattle genetics are exported all over the world in the form of frozen semen, the same is not true for pigs because boar semen does not freeze well. In an attempt to improve semen storage and pig reproduction, animal scientists at the University of Illinois are looking at how sperm survives in the sow oviduct....More

  A presentation at the Midwest Animal Science meeting in Des Moines this week indicated that walking gestating sows might improve the fertility of Yorkshire pigs. According to research presented by Samantha Kaminski, a graduate student at North Dakota State University, swine fetuses showed significant ovarian development after their mothers exercised....More

The Intelligence Surveillance System (ISS) from Conception Ro-Main, Inc., was recently awarded the F.X. Aherne Prize for Innovative Pork Production at the 2013 Banff Pork Seminar in Banff, Alberta, Canada. This new technology is designed to significantly reduce energy costs while providing optimal ambient temperature for piglets in a micro-zone area under a specially designed creep cover....More

Do the math and it becomes clear that the U.S. pork industry is losing about 20% of total born piglets before weaning, says Tim Loula, DVM, Swine Vet Center, St. Peter, MN....More

As we work with farms to improve pigs weaned/mated female/year (PW/MF/Y), we continue to look at the interaction of key performance indicators. For this article, we will focus on wean-to-first service interval, which is the time it takes a weaned female to return to heat and be bred....More